Never Told You
by Sefriu
Summary: Harley and Mik are in LA, Gio and Tybalt are in New York... but Gio's heart is forever stuck on Harley. Tybalt doesn't like their new neighbor - will things ever work out for everyone? Harley/Gio, Tybalt/OC
1. New York

This got up WAY quicker than I thought it would. Ha. Funny part about writing this fanfic – it's difficult to keep remembering Skids' original name, Giovanni, or Gio for short.

Okay, here's the disclaimer: I do NOT. Repeat, NOT own Boy Meets Boy. Sandra K. Fuhr, the awesome author and artist, owns that. I also don't own McDonald's.

Also, this has been re-uploaded because I noticed a few minor (grammatical) errors. So I changed them and re-uploaded it. I will also re-upload Chapter 2 soon due to the fact that I think I can do much better than what I put up.

* * *

"Pardon me while I head off to the restroom," Tybalt said to Gio, sauntering off and putting the two pieces of Harley's numbers into the Italian man's hand.

"You can take care of the rest."

Gio looked at the pieces briefly, and quickly stuffed them into his pocket. _Like hell I'd ever let Harley leave my life_, he thought to himself, _no matter how much of an idiot he is for staying with Mik._

---begin direct quotes from Boy Meets Boy---

"New York? Why New York?"

"I just got my business degree. My stepfather has a friend there who will give me a good job. If you go, then I'll actually know someone up there. I think you'll like it."

"Why me, then?"

"Well, you're a good friend. And it's not like you have family here, right?"

"My family's all dead."

"You see? Come with me."

"I'm not sure."

"You could be an artist. Quit your job. Do nothing but art."

"..."

"Think about it."

---end direct quotes from Boy Meets Boy ^_^---

Tybalt DID think about it. He thought about it for too long, in fact. Even by the time he was decided, he was still caught up in all the wires of emotions and his passion in life – art. So he decided to go.

He informed a gleeful Gio of his decision and the two embraced each other, ready for their new life. After they'd said their goodbyes, they montaged off to the airport. They boarded the 727 and took off to the Big Apple.

On the flight, Gio kept pointing out different landmarks, while Tybalt just smirked and nodded. He smiled brilliantly at the flight attendant – a woman in her mid thirties – who could only swoon at the sparkling smile.

_He's still got that kid-like spirit,_ the red-haired man thought.

When they finally arrived to the city, they immediately hustled off to locate their luggage.

"Wonder if the people are friendly over here?" Gio thought aloud.

"Who cares? We have each other, don't we?" Tybalt asked.

"Hee – yeah, we do," Gio said, his flawless smile lighting up the whole room. A few passing girls ogled him and giggled amongst themselves.

"Why, hello, ladies..." Tybalt said in an attempt to woo them. They only sneered and stuck out their tongues at him.

"... And you call yourself a ladies' man," Gio said giving Tybalt the same smirk he was famous for.

"Pffffff," was Tybalt's only response.

Gio's eyes narrowed as he retained the smirk.

"Hey look, there's my things!" Tybalt said as he quickly dashed off to get them.

_Harley would never say 'Pffffff,' he'd at least give me a decent comeback,_ Gio thought. He glanced into his wallet, where he still had Harley's number all taped up. Ripping wouldn't work anymore – you'd need to exert some real effort to get this number shredded. But even if it was shredded... the 10-digit portal to someone else's voice was imprinted in his mind. He could never forget it. He could never forget Harley.

... Harley...

His mind drifted back to a day in high school. He and Harley were wrestling shirtless in Harley's basement, covered in some watercolors they mooched off of art class.

Red smeared Harley's face and green smeared Skids'. Their smooth chests were covered in all shades of yellow, purple, and blue. They were smiling, but concentrating on getting the enemy cornered. It was a rough-looking match, filled with bumps into walls and dipping their hands into a small pile bucket of mixed paint where they would use it like ammo. Finally, Skids managed to pin the petite blonde against the floor completely. The blonde boy's legs struggled, but Skids had his whole weight thrown into it and his legs wrapped around Harley's ankles, making sure he couldn't move them. An exhausted Harley let out a sigh with a large smile.

"Agh... you GOT me, man! Fair and square!"

"So... what do I win?" Skids asked slyly, the slightest traces of sweat forming on his brow. Harley just looked up at him for a moment.

"Uh... one free hour of cuddling?"

"Yay!" Skids exclaimed, beginning his free hour and mixing the fresh paint on their chests. The two always had their very, VERY friendly rewards after they'd play-fought or fought for real.

"Heh... dude, you sure we shouldn't wash these off or something?" Harley questioned.

"If you want, sure. We could like... shower together or something?"

Harley gave Skids an odd look and revealed the whites of his eyes before his cheeks (or what little Skids could see through all the paint) tinged pink.

"With our pants on, of course!" Skids finished, laughing so hard he was crying.

"Dude – NOT cool!" Harley said, smacking Skids on the back of the head.

"Yeah it was, man! It was HILARIOUS! I've never seen your eyes get that wide and you've never blushed like that before."

"Ugh... whatever. Let's get all this damn messy paint off," Harley said with a giggle, smiling his devilish smile and putting his hand in front of his mouth to hide it a bit.

The two worked their way around the corner to the bathroom and both entered the shower as they were. They tried their best to not get any paint on the tiles, but it was difficult not to – they were covered in the stuff.

"Here, lemme get that," Harley whispered as he put some shampoo in his hands and worked a lather on the back of Skids' head.

"Thanks. Considering you kinda put it there earlier after smacking me..." Skids trailed off. Harley let out a small laugh.

"You deserved it and you know it."

"Mmmm..." Skids was too focused on receiving the head massage that he could only keep his eyes closed and smile. Then, Harley rinsed it all out. After he did so, the Italian teenager shook off his wet hair and turned to face the blonde. A half-smile met his face.

"You... look, uh. Sexy," Harley said while blushing.

"Thanks! You do, too."

An awkward silence ensued, and Harley turned towards the glass doors of the shower without saying anything. Suddenly, Skids leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Wha-?!" His face met his word-choice perfectly, and he turned not pink this time, but a deep red.

"Just saying 'Thanks for being such an awesome friend.'" The taller teenager continued to smile while the Jewish boy just scratched his head.

"Yeah... you're welcome, I suppose. Even though I'm TOTALLY gonna pin you next time we have a paint-covered shirtless wrestling match!"

"Oh, and what're the chances of that happening any time soon again? Just admit it, man, you're defeated."

The two continued to argue and then splashed some soap and water on each other. Things went back to normal.

_Why didn't I kiss him on the lips...?_

"Do you ever listen when people talk to you directly in the ear?" a familiar voice said. Giovanni snapped back to the present and slowly turned his head to face emerald green eyes framed by decently tanned skin... for a ginger.

"Huh? Sorry, just having a little flashback..."

"Try and forget about that stuff, yeah? It's old news – we've got a new life now! New things to take care of, new people to meet, and new souls to seduce..." the man licked his lips.

"Right. Uh... I gotta go get my stuff," Gio said as he dashed off.

How different things were now.

The odd-looking pair traveled up and down the streets to make their way to their apartment – their room number was 455. The 4th floor up wasn't too bad – could've been the 9th.

The halls were long, carpeted and a dark blue. Decent, considering it was $1200 a month without utilities.

"Let's hope our roommates aren't mean," Gio muttered to himself.

As if by cue, a voice shouted from a neighboring door, "QUIT THAT FUCKING RACKET!" Tybalt and Gio blinked and looked around. They couldn't hear any real noises, so they were confused as to whom the voice had been addressing.

A slightly tanned head poked out from behind a door, with black-as-night hair, sharp sapphire blue eyes and bright pink lips.

"Just messing. I thought I'd break in the newbies with a quick shout," the girl said, no more than 24. Gio gave a small laugh.

"Ha – well, you certainly prepared us for something that could've been worse. The name's Gio. Giovanni DiAngelo." He extended his hand. She then brought out her whole body from behind the door and walked over to him. She had on a black towel with the sharp word 'Metallica' written on it.

"My name's Griselda."

"Sweet!" he said as his open hand changed to a pointing finger. She laughed a real laugh and turned slightly so he could see the rest of it.

"Yeah, I've had this for years, it's my absolute favorite," she said, turning back to shake his hand.

"Nice to meet you!" The two said at the same time with smiles. Then, Gio turned to Tybalt, who seemed to have a grimace on his face.

"... Well, Tybs? You gonna say anything?" The man's sharp features only seemed to enhance as he glared at Gio for using such a nickname. He reluctantly extended a long hand, and once the shake was finished, drew his hand back quickly.

"Good to meet you." His statement overflowed with disgust and annoyance. She seemed not to notice, however.

"If you two sexy men ever need anything, just let me know!" She waved away as she closed the door heavily.

"What the hell, man? Why did you treat her like that?" Gio asked.

"She's cute, but I don't like her, Gio. She's too perky and she likes metal and she's random and probably has the attention span of a butterfly-"

"Kinda like me, huh?" Tybalt stopped, and then shook his head.

"Let's just... get our luggage in. The truck should be here in ten hours, right?" They had chosen to take a flight while the rest of their belongings were shipped via a moving truck. It was a good amount of time behind them, obviously.

"Yeah. We can explore the city while they're on their way."

The two headed out to outlet stores, the Statue of Liberty and McDonald's. While at the fast-food restaurant, Gio turned to Tybalt.

"Do you think life will be good for us here?"

"I think so, as long as we don't hear any more from that woman across the way." Gio opened his mouth to protest, but then just stuck a couple of fries in there instead.

_Better not push him, you know how he can get..._

"Ah well. Hey, it's 7:30! The truck might've arrived by now!" Tybalt glanced at his cell phone.

"Aw shit! They're probably there already!" The two exchanged nervous glances and then rushed back to their apartment through the jungle of skyscrapers, hitting every 'Don't Walk' sign on the way. About 45 minutes later, they had reached their apartment. No moving van was in sight.

"Shouldn't they have been here by now?" Tybalt asked.

"I think so..." Gio was interrupted by a Blink 182 ringtone on his phone. He studied the screen briefly, not recognizing the number.

"Hello?"

"Hello, this is Mark. Is this Giovanni DiAngelo?" Gio was a bit stunned. It was odd to hear his full name like that.

"Y-Yes, this is him."

"I wanted to apologize on behalf of our moving services, we were supposed to be there 45 minutes ago, but we got held up. We'll be there in about 10 minutes," he finished.

"Oh, no problem! We'll be waiting for you!"

Gio shut the flip-phone with a smile.

"They'll be here in 10 minutes! They were late!"

Tybalt gave an authentic smile.

"Good! Let's wait for them, then.

After the moving services had arrived, they began to haul up all their stuff – dressers, mattresses, nightstands... the works. Gio took occasional glances at their friendly neighbor's door. That door, from which Griselda had come, remained silent. She didn't check up on them, she didn't even poke her head out once more. No Metallica blasted and no more random shouts occurred.

Once all Tybalt's and Gio's belongings had moved in, they tipped the moving crew and thanked them. Then, the two walked into their lofty apartment, shuffled past the small kitchen, two bathrooms and a large 'family room.' Gio managed to remove his pants while Tybalt simply fell onto the unmade bed. Then, Gio muttered something along the lines of 'fuck it' and collapsed next to Tybalt in his shirt and boxers.


	2. Introductions

So I decided that a few parts of this chapter are rather stupid – I edited them, added new things and deleted a few pieces altogether. I want this fanfic to really display my POV (and in a good manner) on how things should have gone after the comic ended.

Thank you SO much for the reviews! And please leave more!!! That way I know if I should continue or not. :D

* * *

The next day, Gio woke up in his fairly large room (150 sq. feet) shaped like a square. Just how he liked it. He stretched his toned arms and yawned a big awkward yawn, ready for a new day. A few strands of his fairly long straight hair waved in front of his eyes and he blew them away from his face with an awkward upward-lip motion – there was no hat to hold them away from his face anymore. He then remembered who was next to him, as he turned slightly and saw Tybalt sleeping like a bloodthirsty lamb.

_Awwwwwww, he's so peaceful but I know he's dreaming about violent things,_ Gio thought to himself. He slipped Tybalt's arm off his chest and quietly slinked out of the bare bed, his messy light brown hair bobbing around, and put on jeans over his boxers. The two definitely didn't have sex last night.

Gio rubbed the back of his neck and looked into the vanity mirror set up just above his dresser (empty of drawers, of course), the white wall behind it reflecting the emptiness of the house.

_If Tybalt was so tired, why did he sleep with me? His bed is closer to the front door anyway..._

"Eh. Bisexuals are too confusing," Gio said out loud. He then quickly turned to the nearest bisexual who was, to his joy, still sleeping. Gio let out a sigh.

"Wait, I'm a bisexual, right? Why am I talking to myself?" He then walked to his bathroom, removing the pants he'd just put on. It was time to lather up.

He ran the water to heat it up and quickly left the room, going to a small box containing his toiletry items in the main room, using his new house key to cut through the tape. He took out just a few things, and then rushed off to the shower.

In the shower, he began to think again... about Harley...

The memories drifted back to that day in the shower... when he gave Harley just a kiss on the cheek.

"Harley..." he said, lathering his hair. He imagined that Harley was in the shower there with him, and began to pretend to lather someone else's hair. Then, he imagined that Harley was leaning into him, facing him, embracing him and kissing him on the lips... Gio began to exhale lightly and rock his hips back and forth.

"Harley..." he moaned a bit louder. Suddenly, he stumbled forward a bit due to his motions. He caught himself, and looked around to see if anyone was watching before he smacked himself in the forehead.

"Silly... you're in the shower. Stop dreaming and get finished already," his rational side told him. But... was it just a hopeless dream? That he'd be with Harley? He stopped, and let the water hit his back while he worried and wondered...

_Wonder what he's doing..._

Giovanni exited the shower wearing a towel draped around his shoulders – it was sheer white and complemented his brown hair. He had a pair of light gray sweatpants on and his hair was still dripping a bit, some drops running down his slightly hairy, well-toned chest. He figured it would be best to start unpacking fairly soon, but he was hungry.

In the fridge, he saw only some leftover McDonald's from yesterday.

"Eh, better than nothing." He tossed it in the microwave and hit the 'auto defrost' button – it worked so much better for leftovers than regularly microwaving, as he found out a few years ago attempting to re-heat some pizza.

He heard a knock at the door. He stopped and cocked an eyebrow.

_Who the hell...?_ he thought to himself. He glanced at his wristwatch he'd gotten as a moving-away present from his old band mate, Rasheequa – 8:14 AM. Who comes knocking around that hour? He peered through the porthole glass, but someone had put their finger over it, knowing full well what s/he was doing.

_Ah well, what's the worst that could happen?_

He swung open the door... to see a familiar face.

"Hey Griselda! What's up?"

"Oh, nothing really," the pretty girl responded, clad in a striking deep blue top with halter strings, accompanied by black jeans "I've just been bored pretty much all night – so I thought I'd come and visit you!"

"Wait... do you mean you never went to sleep?"

She laughed and gave him a light push on the shoulder.

"No, silly, I went to sleep alright. I take little naps throughout the night – of around 20 minutes or so."

"Geez, how do you survive off that?" he asked, unsure of whether or not she was telling the truth.

She shrugged and then looked at him through a silver-studded eyebrow piercing.

"It's a living. Oh hey, Tybalt!" Gio jumped ever-so-slightly as he felt an arm around his neck.

The red-headed zombie had stumbled over towards him silently and was now using him for support. He cast Griselda a somewhat more pleasant look than what he had yesterday.

"Hey," was all that emerged from his mouth.

The younger man smiled and they stood there in awkward silence for just a second, before Griselda invited herself in.

"Um, yeah, we haven't unpacked or anything," Gio said while turning, his roommate turning with him.

"That's okay; this place always looks kinda barren, y'know? I remember the couple who lived here before you two... they stayed for barely a month and then just couldn't take it. It reminded them of an empty nest or something, and they were looking to have children soon, so they moved way out to Maine in a nice cottage."

"She really kinda runs on..." Tybalt reminded Giovanni, gritting his teeth.

"Psh – at least she's talking!" Gio shushed him.

"But I don't think you two are worried about kids, anyway!" she said, turning rapidly and smiling at them once more.

"Nah – I'm definitely not," the young Italian man stated boldly. He elbowed his roommate slightly.

"Yeah, me neither, I guess..." stated Tybalt. Before Gio could say anything else, Griselda changed the subject.

"Let's get you unpacked!"

"But, uh, first, I need to get dressed, and finish the McDonald's I had leftover in the microwave," Gio said, pointing at his bare torso covered somewhat by the white towel and the microwave. Griselda made the "oh" motion with her lips and nodded.

"You should do that."

Gio nodded and rushed by her, grabbing a shirt and quickly ruffling his hair to dry it.

When he'd finished drying and dressing, he walked out of the small white bathroom and saw Griselda and Tybalt not tearing each other apart. They were just lounging a few feet away from each other.

_Phew,_ he thought.

He wolfed down his leftovers and offered a bit to Griselda, who refused, saying "I don't eat fast food" or something like that.

"Okay, NOW let's get unpacked!"

About 4 hours later, they had managed to put everything in its proper place. Tybalt had his art studio set up in the large room near the door, their bedrooms were done almost perfectly to their liking (they still had to raid a few retail stores to make their new abodes liveable), the bathrooms were set up to the best they could be without a shower curtain and the family room had the large TV set up in the corner with two sofas in front of it. Perfect.

Each of them had worked up a fair amount of sweat, so now they were sitting in front of the open bedroom window on a brown indoor bench set up next to it, cooling off.

"Maybe you should've waited to take a shower after all," Tybalt said with a small chuckle to Gio.

"Aren't you glad I was here to help?" Griselda asked, grinning while throwing her head back, her dark mane flying with her.

"Definitely, dude!" Gio said. They collided fists whilst Tybalt rolled his eyes.

"So why are you out here, little miss?" asked Tybalt. Gio turned in shock, amazed that Tybalt would actually strike up a conversation with this girl who he once appeared to hate. Thankfully, she responded giddily.

"Oh, I came here because I initially moved in with a boyfriend. Yeah, cliché, I know, but it's the truth. Turned out, he was cheating on me. With a hooker. In fact, with several hookers."

"Oh, that's pleasant to walk in on." Gio stated with a grimace.

"Didn't walk in on them – just saw the hookers walk out of his apartment and talk about how awful he was in bed," she said with a laugh, "Ironically, they thought I was his next lay! Which I was."

Tybalt and Gio let out an almost synchronized laugh, to which Griselda responded with a giggle.

"Then after some of his 'please, I'm so tired' and 'I just wanna sleep, baby,' I decided to kick him out of my apartment and told him all about the girls who I'd seen on my way back. So the next day he came back, packed up his stuff without saying anything and left the key. Good riddance."

"Good for YOU!" the Italian man shouted. Griselda smiled at him again, then sighed.

"Yeah... good for me. Now I had to pay rent on my own. Not sure how I managed, but I did. And no, I didn't make like his previous lays to do it," she said to Tybalt with a wink.

He smirked back at her.

_Progress,_ thought Gio.

"Hey, I don't know about you dudes, but I'm hungry. Want anything to eat? I make killer spaghetti..."

"I would figure, you _are_ Italian," noted Tybalt.

"Sure! That sounds awesome," Griselda responded.

"Of course! The least I can do, considering you helped us unpack," Gio said with a smile. He got up and made his way over to their new kitchen. It was large, spacious, well-lit and well-equipped with all the modern technology any post-college adult could ask for... damn, it _did_ feel like an empty nest. Like there could never be enough children to fill such a spacious apartment. But he wasn't looking to have kids so that was no biggie. He got out the ingredients while keeping an eye on Tybalt and Griselda. The kitchen fan was making too much noise for him to hear them talking quietly, but he saw her point at her small mole just down and right of her nose and Tybalt laughed, so he smiled and continued cooking.

He thought of his new life... he was going to go look at that business opportunity tomorrow for his degree and see the whole city instead of just McDonald's and the tourist destinations. Tybalt was going to work on his art, which would be wonderful because it was his passion, and Gio was going to work in business (marketing), his passion (even though he hated wearing monkey suits). Life pretty much couldn't get any better.

Maybe he _should_ try to move on from Harley... maybe he should just forget about him. Try and go out on the Big Apple and see what he could do with his own life, not with the blonde boy who crushed his heart while skipping about carelessly, not even noticing what he was doing...

Gio winced in pain for a second. He had been hurt, and he didn't want to hurt Harley but he wanted to be happy, too. He had changed, that young man named Giovanni. He used to be cheery, he used to be happy, he used to call himself Skids, he used to doodle shirtless on the walls or in coloring books, he used to feel like he would never grow up... now, though, he was off in his own apartment and about to get a job with his business degree. Tybalt was going to work on art all the time and not get a job, or maybe selling art would be his job – who knew? Things were different now. So very different.

Skids had burned all of his coloring books the night before he left – he remembered watching them curl up in the flames of the outdoor bonfire, the wax from the crayon-coloring not changing the color of the flames one bit, but curdling all the same. And he donated the crayons, too – he would have donated the coloring books, but they were already colored-in. Burning them made him think he would be able to forget Harley... forget his smell, forget his smile, forget his hair, forget his body, forget his laugh, forget his attitude, forget his breath...forget his everything. Forget Harley... Gio's everything.

"Quit your daydreaming, yeah?" Griselda asked loudly but kindly through dark blue eyes. Giovanni came out of his trance and glanced over at his new friend.

"What?"

"The pasta – it's boiling over," she said, pointing at the pot overflowing with white froth, making a hissing sound as the froth hit the burners on the stove, "... you might wanna fix that or somethin'." She smiled a bit, obviously more focused on the food than the fact that her friend did something goofy.

"Shit! I didn't even notice," Gio said as he rushed back over to the stove, blowing on the froth to simmer it down. He would clean up the rest later, it was too hot to fix it right now.

"Next time, don't interrupt our conversation, please?" Tybalt requested with a razor blade smile.

_Whoa, talk about a drastic change_, Gio thought to himself, _Tybalt originally couldn't stand her but after a few hours of moving stuff around and just listening to her, he's having a full on conversation with her?! Wow. I'd like to see where this goes... _

He stirred up the spaghetti and took out a single strand, biting off the tip to see if it was the right texture. Yup! Al dente.

"Food's ready!" he shouted back to his friends. He drained the spaghetti and set up the sauce and pasta in separate bowls. Tybalt walked up and cocked an eyebrow at this.

"Wouldn't it be easier to mix it all into one bowl?"

"It always tastes better when you mix it yourself," Gio replied with that unforgettable smile.

"I'd be glad to!" Griselda stated, taking one of the square hunter green plates set up on the black granite counter.

"Don't take too much," the cook noted, "it's a bit spicy." Griselda turned back at him with a look that said 'are you kidding?'

"Hon, I'm Mexican – my _blood_ is spicy," she said with a wink. Tybalt chuckled in amusement.

"Spicy indeed," he concurred with a smirk.

The three of them proceeded to fill their plates with pasta with no further conversation until they sat down at the glass table with red-cushioned wooden chairs. Nothing fancy or special, but enough to look decent for a while.

None of them was particularly religious, so they began to dig in.

"Wait!" Gio interrupted. The other two literally had the pasta-draped forks in front of their mouths.

"... For what?" Tybalt asked, his eyes narrowing as one eyebrow raised and he looked towards his friend.

"I just wanted to take the time to say that I'm grateful for us being in this new city and I'm glad to have already made a friend after being here for just a couple of days." Gio smiled and his female friend returned the smile.

"I'll be looking forward to _you_ visiting," she said slyly.

"Yeah, yeah – can we eat now?" Tybalt asked.

"Yes, let's," the Italian man stated, and they began to stuff themselves with a delicious spicy spaghetti (AN: try it if you haven't, it's soooo good).

Conversation was light at first, the three were mostly focused on the food. Since the two young men had just moved in and not purchased any real groceries, spaghetti was the only food for now; no sides, no bread, nothing. Just good 'ol spaghetti.

"What brought you two to the Big Apple?" Griselda suddenly asked.

A sudden moment of silence dawned upon the table.

"Well," began Gio, "I graduated with a business degree and my stepfather found me a good job up here so I decided to take the chance! Tybalt-"

"I'll explain for myself, thank you very much," Tybalt interrupted. Gio sneered for a split-second, then let his friend continue.

"My family is all dead, and I was at a dead-end job back where the both of us used to live anyway. Gio promised that I could get an apartment with him and work on art all the time, so that's what I'm gonna do!" He finished with a rather creepy smile - the kind where the eyes are a little too wide and the grin is a little too stretched.

_That was pretty blunt... and Tybalt's awfully cheery about that,_ thought Gio.

"Good for you two!" Griselda said with a smile. Nothing really ever brought her down, it seemed.

"Any romantic prospects for either of you? Each other, perhaps?" she asked with a wink, not being particularly serious.

"Nah," Tybalt said without warning, "Gio is too weird for me." He reached over and ruffled the hair of the kid-at-heart.

"Yeah, Tybalt's too evil for me," Gio noted out loud, suddenly painfully remembering how Tybalt had once tried to steal the love of his life. He'd moved on because he had the commitment of a hooker, but he still attempted to get with Harley more than once.

"He doesn't seem too evil. So are each of you two seeing someone else?"

"Well, I fell in love with my best friend back at home... a real angel, to be honest. But hey, if I can find someone better who catches my attention, then I'll go after that one instead." He winked at Griselda, who blushed a bit and looked down at the scrapings left on her plate.

_Whoa, what's with me tonight? Bein' all flirty and stuff?_ Gio thought to himself. He usually wasn't like this.

"On the contrary, I just go for whoever is attractive to me," the redhead stated, also winking at Griselda. By now the girl had turned about cherry red (she wasn't dark enough to hide it completely) and was trying her best to hide her face in her napkin.

"Uh, I think I'll go clean up my mess," she said, taking her plate and napkin-in-face to the counter.

"No need," Gio reassured her, "I can take care of it. I made the big mess, after all!" He smiled at her and saw her eyes narrow out of desperation for at least a little time alone to concentrate and stop blushing.

"I'm uh... gonna go to the restroom then," she stated, almost clanging her plate down and still holding her napkin in front of her face. The only way she knew it was the restroom was because the door was already wide open and she could see the sink. She rushed in and closed the door surprisingly gently.

"Wow," Tybalt said with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah. I didn't think we were _that_ hot," Gio said to himself, cocking one eyebrow.

"Well, maybe _you_ didn't, but that's beside the point. Maybe she's just got issues with guys hitting on her?"

"Nah... she was being flirty with us, too. Maybe she just didn't expect us to hit on her in return?"

"Probably."

"Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna clean up," the brown-haired man said, taking Tybalt's plate and silverware.

"Ah. Thank you," Tybalt said with a smirk. The younger of the two took the dinnerware off to the sink, rinsing them before he placed them in the dishwashing machine.

"I notice you really took a liking to her quite suddenly," Gio stated as he placed the used forks in the formerly barren machine.

"She... is quite interesting. Quite entertaining, really. I figured it's best to be on her good side, not her bad side – after all, she does live right across the hall," he finished.

"Then how come you were so mean to her in the first place? You barely met her and you passed judgment at her like she was just someone to be ignored," Gio said accusingly.

"That's not important. But perhaps we should go out to get some of our things for our apartment? It's only 1 in the afternoon."

Griselda suddenly emerged from the bathroom, smiling once again. She'd had enough time to recover, and apparently didn't hear the conversation which occurred between the two.

"Hey, how about all three of us go out and shop for some of our finishing touches?" Giovanni asked with his killer smile.

"Sure!" Grisey responded, while Tybalt nodded in concurrence.

The trio walked out into the busy streets in nice sunny weather, passing occasional loonies and some rather well-dressed people in the same intersection. While Tybalt pointed at some ugly people, making Griselda laugh, Gio couldn't help but be reminded of when Cyanide pointed at some Anime freaks (before they'd gone to a convention and he met his current girlfriend, Ronnie, who was an Anime freak). It was like the trio was being re-created...

_Harley..._ his mind wandered once more.

Dammit! He was like an obsessed little schoolgirl or something. He just could not stop thinking about his dream guy... but what made him like the blonde Jewish boy so much? 'The whole package' was usually his best answer, but he thought about people he'd met who were similar to Harley and they had no effect on him. Why was that? Was it because he'd known Harley for so long and he had this intimate connection with him that had developed from their friendship? Why didn't Harley feel the same way? He admitted that he did once, back in high school... of course when he admitted it, they had already moved on. Oh how poor Gio wished he'd done something back then. But now he had to at least try to move on... if that was possible.

Was there life after love?

He walked into a thrift store with his red-headed friend and brunette friend. He absently picked out crappy silverware and a few styrofoam plates, piling them into the cart while his friends laughed amongst themselves, seeming to get along quite well. What a contrast... he hadn't seen Tybalt smile like that in ages. It brought a small smile to his face as well... maybe things weren't gonna be so bad after all.

The three walked back to their building (it was just beginning to get dark) lugging their items through the busy streets, which were already glowing brightly in the twilight. Gio made small talk with Griselda and Tybalt as they waited in the elevator to get up to their floor.

Finally, they reached their pad and Griselda invited herself in, with Tybalt following closely behind. Giovanni closed the door once they had lugged in all of their necessities.

The three spent a little more time straightening up and putting certain items in their places. Griselda even helped them rearrange their furniture in the family room.

Tybalt sat down in a wicker chair near the corned of the living room while Griselda waltzed on over to the kitchen to see how things were looking in that area. She turned back to Gio and gave a nod of approval. He smiled in return. Then, Tybalt spoke up.

"Hey, with all of our stuff moved in, I think I'll take a night for myself and head out to the bars for a bit to see what's in town, who's hot and who's not," the redhead rambled. He got out of his chair and sauntered off to his room, taking off his shirt on the way. Undoubtedly he was going to change for his night out; Gio predicted a long-sleeved button-up with khaki pants, for some reason.

Griselda sat down and remained oddly quiet, obviously thinking to herself.

_Well, he's back to good old Tybalt,_ Giovanni thought to himself in response. Then again, was Tybalt ever really good? No – he'd always been conniving, sly, selfish and indulgent. Why did Gio want him to move to New York in the first place? Because the man had kissed his Harley and he somehow reminded him of his angel? Because he had some sort of genuine interest in Tybalt? That couldn't be, he'd already had sex with the devil's spawn and felt nearly nothing...

No wait, it was the fact that when Gio was down, Tybalt helped him up. Even though he was usually a selfish bastard, he ended up helping out the poor college senior. But why? Gio's innocence and happy demeanor had always clouded his judgment. He knew Tybalt used people and he had initially been after Harley – he even _lied_ about who he was to Gio's face, saying that this 'other Tybalt' was his "exact opposite." Why did he trust someone who lied to him like that? Had he been used, too?

"And voila!" Tybalt shouted, barging out of his door with (surprise) a long-sleeved bright blue button-down silk shirt and tight khaki pants while he let his surprisingly soft red hair flow down. He looked highly androgynous and, to those who did not already know him, very attractive.

"Wow. Were you saving those for a special occasion or something?" Giovanni asked with obvious disinterest, scrubbing the dishes still, while Griselda's jaw dropped a few feet away.

"Perhaps – maybe I was saving them for when I wanted to have a night out and... a little fun," he said, licking his lips. Yup, that was Tybalt.

"Sounds like a blast, man, you go and enjoy yourself," Gio said while drying the colander.

"Care to join, my friend?" Tybalt asked, trying to entice him with green eyes.

"No, I'm good, I'll just stay in for the night," his 'friend' retorted.

"Wow, Tybalt, you look...wow," was all Griselda could say while staring at him, her cheeks tinged pink. Tybalt could only pout his lips a bit (not disappointed, but making his face more appealing) before he unbuttoned one of his buttons, enticing her a bit further and deepening her pink blush. He stepped towards the door and opened it slightly.

"Well, m'lady, sorry to leave on such short notice but I'm off to..." he paused, his face correcting itself as he thought of the right phrase...

"... have a little fun. Ta for now!" He said, letting his red hair swish as he turned his head back to the front door and he left, slamming it shut.

Gio quickly turned around to check the microwave clock – 10:11 PM. Ripe time for checking out clubs, at any rate. He then turned back to see Griselda standing there, still a bit pink in the cheeks.

"Um... Grisey? You okay?" He asked her, and she turned to face him, her pink tinge fading.

"How did you know that was my nickname?" she asked, her eyes wide as ever.

"Uh... just a guess, really. My old friend was named Cyanide but we called him Cy or Cya for short, so I kinda figured..." he trailed off, his mind on Tybalt and whatever was going on with him at the moment. So he hated Griselda at first but then he liked her but then he decided to go out to pick up a few chicks or guys? It made no sense.

"Cyanide?" she asked out loud, and then she muttered to herself in Spanish.

"Heh, yeah, it was kind of a crazy name, but it's his birth name, believe it or not," Gio responded with a kind smile.

"You speak Spanish?" she asked him, her eyes somewhat relaxing from familiarity.

"Well, no, he spoke Spanish so I picked up a little bit from him. In fact, you look a little bit like him... that is, you have the same night-black hair and it's about the same length... and that's about it, heh," he finished. She smiled comfortingly at him.

"Glad to know I can remind you of your friends from back home," she stated. She stretched her arms into the air and yawned a nice big yawn. Most men would have killed to see that, since it showed off her boobs quite nicely. She still hadn't picked up on the fact that Gio was in love with his _male_ friend, but she didn't seem like the type to judge anyway.

"I'm gonna pass out now, I'll see ya later, bud! Thanks again for lunch and the hang-out time!"

And then the apartment was empty. Gio leaned over the kitchen sink with his hands gripping the black granite edge, letting the steam from the hot water hit his face, struck with an ever-appealing expression. So many thoughts were hidden behind that expression and now he could even shout about his problems and seemingly nobody would listen or care.

But he was tired, too. He went to his room, barren save a dresser, bed and desk. He absently took off his jeans, belt-loops ever-missing, and put them in his dirty laundry hamper, a cheap $4 white one he'd bought earlier that day. Tomorrow would be better. He shut off the lights and flung himself onto his twin-sized mattress, passing out and waiting for tomorrow, the day he would begin his job, to come.

In the middle of the night, several loud noises (bumping, stumbling) aroused him from his slumber. Gio lifted up his head very quickly and felt a crick in his neck from the sudden motion, wincing in pain. He then listened carefully, holding up his head with one arm lazily flung there. Muffled laughter... lots of laughter. Tybalt was probably home, and very drunk. And it sounded like...yeah, two people with him. But wait...a male and a female? This was new. Usually he would be with two females or one male but two of the opposite sex at once? The young man could only hope that Tybalt wouldn't be too loud... .at least their bedrooms were on opposite sides of the complex.

He heard a loud laugh and the red-head muttering something like "Yeah, you're both pretty hot and I'm gonna..." but his speech was too slurred to understand the rest of it.

_Great... if he's loud, I swear I'm gonna break his door down, _Gio thought before fatigue took him once more.

Whether or not there was a noise barrier in Tybalt's room, he knew not, for he slept peacefully for the rest of the night.


	3. Griselda

Just realized this, but I should probably put a disclaimer: I do NOT think there is anything wrong with the ending Sandra wrote for Boy Meets Boy. This is merely my take on it and I thought Skids, the loving, sweet, attractive and wonderful man (whom I personally developed a crush on) deserved a more promising future. That is all.

Okay, I spent a lot of time on this chapter. I went through a whole lot of things and at some points, there were parts even *I* didn't see coming. That's the beauty of writing, to me – it just flows so well if you have a good hand for it.

Once again, please leave reviews; I would love to hear more feedback. :)

* * *

Gio awoke to the loud slamming of the front door.

_Owwwwww, my head..._ he thought, since the slamming caused a near-instant headache. Then he remembered how Tybalt had a couple of people over last night... a male and a female, both probably very drunk as well. He thought he heard someone shouting or screaming and then he heard yet another slam, adding to his headache.

_Okay, this is my apartment, too. Time to get out there and see what's up._

He clambered his way over to the door, dressed only in socks, boxers and a tank-top. He opened it quickly and stumbled over to the main room. Tybalt was sitting on the couch, shirtless in bright blue pajama pants and muttering to himself. If Giovanni had been anyone else, he would have been gawking at Tybalt's half-naked body, but he knew the man too well to do so.

"What the hell?" Gio asked. Tybalt looked up, his eyes a bit wide and brows furrowed.

"What do you mean 'what the hell?'" was all he said in response.

"What was that noise? Could've woken up my dead grandma," Gio stated.

"That noise? It was the slamming of a door. Duh," Tybalt said rudely like he normally would. Giovanni clenched his fist, and then released it.

"Yeah, but why?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"Because I guess I pissed those two off when I told them to leave."

Gio began to open his mouth to ask why he told them to leave, but it was pointless. Tybalt was an asshole – that's why he told them to leave.

"Just... don't have people slamming the door so loud at 7 AM again, yea? Not just for me, but for the neighbors, too."

"Mind your own business," Tybalt shot at him, resuming his muttering. That was it.

"Hey, this is my apartment, too, dammit, and I'm the one who got this place to begin with – plus I'm paying more in rent than you. So don't slam any more _fucking doors!!_"

Tybalt didn't respond, though it was obvious the message had gotten through as he was no longer muttering to himself. He stood up and walked back into his bedroom, closing the door quietly. Gio stood there, dumbfounded at what he'd just done.

_Wow...where did that come from? Maybe I was too hard on him? _The young man thought to himself. Suddenly, a tiny angel version of himself popped up on his left shoulder.

"Yes you were! You should apologize to him! He's got feelings just like you!" Without a moment's notice, a demon version of himself popped up onto his right shoulder.

"No, he deserves it. He knew how loud those door slams were and he was the cause of them – let him suffer for his actions!"

Gio was torn for second, but he'd told the truth. Maybe he should just make sure Tybalt was alright, but not necessarily apologize. He walked to Tybalt's bedroom door and stood outside for just a second, his hand waiting in front of the door. Then, he knocked. He heard a faint voice say 'come in,' though Tybalt sounded very sad. He quickly opened the door to see Tybalt's pad. It was very... plain and empty, with merely a dresser, a desk and a bed. Very few decorations adorned anything, there was nothing on the deep gray walls, and Tybalt's sheets were lead-colored – even though they were satin, which technically made them silver, they were a dull silver instead of a brilliant one. The bed sat in the middle of the room and Tybalt sat on a side facing somewhat away from the door.

"Tybs? You okay?"

"What do you think?" the redhead responded, his face inches from his balled-up hands and the tears lingering in his voice.

_Crap, I'd better apologize..._ However, as if to read his mind, Tybalt spoke up.

"Don't worry – no need to apologize, I was the one who screwed up... I just..." he continued babbling and blubbering.

_Inviting over two people to have sex is normal... two people of opposing sexes, not as normal... but breaking down in front of me?! Tybs has got some SERIOUS issues all of a sudden!_ The young man thought to himself. He walked over and sat down next to his friend.

"It's alright, Tybs..." Gio said, putting an arm around his shirtless roommate. Suddenly, Tybalt cringed and backed away towards the head of his bed, a thin hand covering the lower half of his face.

"It's not alright. You don't even know what happened on this bed."

With sudden realization, Gio practically jumped off the bed.

"Why did you even have to mention that?" he asked vehemently. He noticed Tybalt's smile muscle twitch for a split second. Was this some sick game Tybalt was playing? His tears were still drying, though...

The hand covering his face moved down and Tybalt frowned.

"Sorry, I think I needed a reaction from you or something. I feel a bit better now. Look, I didn't mean for them to slam the door when they left... I didn't expect them to take my 'get out' routine so seriously."

"Well what all happened?"

"They... well, they were a married couple and they were looking to spice up their love life, so I said I'd do it for the night... guess they liked it so much that they wanted me to keep it going long-term but I told her that she could've faked a better orgasm and that his boner couldn't get off a tree squirrel."

"... And you honestly expected them _not_ to slam the door?" Gio sighed. He should have prepared for this kind of thing. To call Tybalt 'brutally honest' was an understatement – he was a slaughter fest of insults.

"I dunno, I've just been suddenly remembering things and then I had to get out of here and that _woman_ was just..." He trailed off yet again.

"You mean Griselda? What did she do? She's been nothing but nice and fun and cool! What problem could you possibly have with her?"

"Never mind, you wouldn't understand any way," Tybalt said with a dismissing wave of his hand.

"... I'd better head out now, I've gotta find some new art supplies, since I've already got an idea for my next painting." He sat up, grabbed a dark yellow shirt from his dresser and quickly stuffed it over his head.

"Bye."

And the room was empty.

"What in the HELL was that all about?" Gio asked the air. Honestly, what was going on? Tybalt had been almost disgusted with Griselda when he first met her, then he got along with her like they were old friends, then he turned around and apparently had sex with a married couple because of issues she brought up (somehow) and now he was bringing her up again?! Something was seriously wrong with Tybalt – he was a messed up individual as is but this was taking things to another level.

_I've gotta figure out what's going on with him..._ Giovanni thought to himself. Again, in an instant, his angel and demon versions of himself popped up on his shoulders.

"Where do you dudes even come from?" he asked out loud, practically throwing his arms into the air. His polar opposites blinked in surprise for a moment, then began to yap away.

"You should talk to him about it, Gio. Diplomacy is always the best way to solve a problem," his angel side said.

"No, go through his belongings to see if you can find clues!! Don't forget how rude he was earlier!" his demon side responded.

Gio thought about it for a second. He looked around the room, but there wasn't much to Tybalt's dreary living space... it's like he kept all his evil schemes in his head or something. There was no sense in trying to talk to him right now because, well, he was gone.

"Why do you think he's evil?" his angel side asked.

"Simple – because evil is FUN!" retorted the demon side.

"Psh, is _not_."

"Is _too_!"

The two began arguing and jumped onto Gio's head, wrestling each other ferociously until they eventually got tuckered out and started tickling each other instead. The young man tossed them off his head and walked out Tybalt's bedroom door. Once they hit the ground, they disappeared with a *poof* noise.

"Alright, so Tybalt's been acting strange but I can't do anything to find out what's up with him... yet. Why don't I just take my mind off him or something? I could...visit Griselda!"

He was almost shocked at his own brilliance for a moment. His mind quickly regressed to innocent childhood fantasies of Griselda being a wonderful friend who would draw on him with washable markers and who would watch episodes of Buffy with him for hours and hours while he asked questions. Oh, it would be so much fun! He walked out of his apartment and locked the door behind him, his keys in his pocket.

He pranced across the hallway to Griselda's room, knocking on her door.

"What?!" a fed-up voice came from the other side.

"S'me, Grisey! It's Gio!!" he said gleefully. He heard a few steps towards the door and then it flung open to a smiling Griselda.

"Giovanni! I thought you were that annoying Baptist handing out the pamphlets and trying to make people give him money!! So good to see you, come on in," she said, waving her arm towards her pad.

Giovanni took one step in... and gasped in amazement.

"It's...so... eighties!!" Indeed, it was. The walls were a fairly dark purple with black hollow squares on them (they must have been painted by hand), the carpet was close to zebra-print, the couches were neon blue or green and the chairs were mostly metal. Tube-shaped chandeliers hung from the ceiling above the family room, kitchen and the table, which was a black circle with metal legs and matching chairs. To most, it would seem tacky, but to Gio's childlike mind, it was eighties.

"Wow, where did you get all this stuff?" Gio asked his new friend. She smirked and shrugged.

"Eh, I got a few friends in interesting places. They scratch my back, I scratch theirs. Come, sit down, and let me make you a little something to eat." Griselda motioned to the neon blue couch and then walked towards the kitchen, which was relatively walled off with a small hole in the wall from which one could see in or out and potentially pass dishes through. It looked like it went right to the sink. Gio sprawled out on the couch, his childhood fantasies taking him over. _This is gonna be so much fun! She's gonna laugh with me and we'll watch whatever we want for hours, hopefully Buffy..._

"What brings you over here?" Grisey asked from the kitchen. Uh oh, this wasn't expected. _Think, Gio, think!_

"Well, Tybs went out for a bit to get some art supplies and since I was bored I decided to come over to see what your place was like. I gotta say, I'm impressed, dude!" The perfect balance of factual information and his free spirit.

"Thank you! I never got tired of the 80's style, for some reason – the couches should hurt my eyes, but I just kinda got used to them," the disembodied voice continued.

"Do you like enchiladas?" she asked after a brief pause.

"Hells yeah I do! Got any hot sauce to go along with that?"

"Sure do, but this stuff is spicy – and when I say spicy, I mean spicy by _my _standards, not white people standards!" She said with a small laugh at the end.

"Then leave it off for now, I think I'll try some on my own."

While the food was microwaving, Griselda retreated back to the couch to sit with Gio. A thought instantly popped into his head.

"So have you ever watched Buffy?" He quickly asked without thinking. A befuddled face met with his, and he regretted it in a heartbeat.

_Oh great, she's never heard of it – way to go, genius. Now you just made yourself look like an idiot in front of your only friend in the city._

"Well... I've heard about it from a lot of people, yeah, but I never saw it really. A friend did once bring over a season and we only got to watch one episode because we fell asleep too quickly..." She stopped and gained a stoic face.

"So... did you like it?" he asked. She immediately perked up and smiled a brilliant smile.

"Yeah! I totally want to see more!!" In this moment, her smile reignited faith in Gio's heart – not only of friendship, but as a reminder of Harley's wonderful smile. His romantic side began to emerge and he met her smile with a warm one of his own.

"Your smile really brings out the best in you," he said before he thought about what he was saying. Her face changed back once again, but this time to a surprised one with cheeks tinged pink. Her skin was _just_ light enough that one could see the pink in her cheeks when she blushed.

"Um... I'd better go and check those enchiladas now!" she said with a desperate smile, nothing comparable to the one she had just emitted. She rushed up before Gio could say another word and he sighed, leaning his head down a bit. This brought up the question he'd been wanting an answer to for a little while now. He had to ask her...

"Grisey..." he began.

"Oh it's a good thing I checked these! They were on the verge of burning! You'd think I would know how to microwave them after reheating them for so many years..." she trailed off. He heard a clatter of plates, and the frantic spooning-out of the leftovers onto the dinnerware. Then she rushed back over with the two plates in hand, clanging them down onto the table in front of the couch.

"Grisey, I have to ask-"

"Ope! Almost forgot the forks!! Wow I sure am having one odd night!!" she said, standing back up and dashing off to the kitchen once again. _It's 8 AM..._ Gio thought. He had seen the signs before, and now it was time to ask. Gio stood up and walked slowly to the kitchen, amongst noises of clattering silverware and ripping paper towels for napkins. The kitchen layout didn't surprise him – it was almost identical to his own, with a few more items hanging from the walls, some in Spanish, and a Virgin of Guadalupe painting above the sink.

"Griselda..." he began, and she stopped mid-action without looking at him, "... do you have a problem with people complimenting you?"

She turned slowly to him. Her eyes spoke worlds as she cringed and backed to the far side of the kitchen, sinking to the floor and beginning to sob. Giovanni's eyes widened and he rushed over to her.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry! What's wrong??" he asked, putting an arm around her shoulders. She winced for a second, but then accepted his arm.

"I... didn't tell you everything about my ex," she began.

"Then tell me – I'm here to listen," he replied with a warm smile. So she told her story, filled with sniffles and sobs.

"One night... a couple of months ago, he got home and the dinner I'd cooked him wasn't something he wanted. He practically shouted at me to put it away and he refused to eat it. I asked him why and he told me not to ask questions. Then, a week later after he'd done the same thing, I'd gotten fed up with him doing that and shouted back. That was when he hit me... I'll never forget that first sting of a hand right across the face. It only descended from there. If I didn't cook him the right meal, he'd just hit me once again. Then... when I burnt his favorite meal because I was so worried about him coming home and being unhappy, that was when he beat me... he beat me 'till I ached all over. I went to sleep with every bit of me hurting..." She became lost in her tears and cries once more, and Gio simply held her, closing his eyes. He'd never known what it was like to be in an abusive relationship – or a relationship, really. All he knew was that it's never acceptable to be hit by your partner, so he held her tightly.

"But how come you never mentioned this before?" he asked her.

"How would you bring up a conversation like that?" she responded quietly.

"Well, for starters, you sink back against a kitchen wall..." he joked. She laughed. Not a hearty laugh or even a real laugh, but a laugh that someone has to make after they've been crying too hard. A laugh that prevents one from imploding due to the emotional outpour.

"Yeah, I guess that'd be a good start..." she said, sobbing a bit less. Gio remembered psychology from college, and a thought came to mind.

"Why did the issue suddenly come up with me, then? What incited it?"

"Well... you look just like him. So when you began talking about my smile, it reminded me of that time he told me something... 'You're lucky you're so pretty or else I'd beat you 'till you bled.'"

He took her face with his hand and moved it to face him, watching a tear roll down steadily from her right eye.

"Griselda, I promise you that I am nothing like this monster and I will never lay a hand on you." He didn't wait for a response; he just embraced her once again and felt her arms around his back, letting him know that she was already beginning to feel better. He let go and smiled at her once again.

"Now quit your daydreaming, yea?" he said to her, and she smiled a tearful smile, remembering how she'd said the same thing to him yesterday as he was cooking her food in his apartment.

"Definitely – no more bad stuff today!" she said triumphantly, standing up with the help of one of Gio's strong arms. The two walked back to the couch, Griselda drying her tears and Gio maintaining one arm around her shoulder. He released her when they sat down but she still had a bit more to dry. After a few minutes, she was better and her demeanor had returned to normal.

"Wow... it sure has been a long time since I've cried with somebody else!" she told him.

"Yeah... and normally I wouldn't have been so serious, but since I've moved from my college town, things have been a lot different for me."

"How so?" Griselda inquired, eager to change the subject to something different than her abusive ex.

"Well, I used to be really happy and carefree and I would eat lots of sugary stuff and hang out with my two best friends – Harley and Cyanide."

"You've mentioned Cyanide before, but I don't think you've mentioned Harley. Who's that?"

"Harley was my best friend in the world – he saved me from when I was the fat kid with bad acne and glasses, and I was being picked on by these two jerks in elementary school. He nicknamed me a crazy name from the get-go and it stuck for pretty much the rest of our friendship. We joined a band, lost a band member due to Harley being gay, and then we found a new band member and we did a few gigs here and there." He glanced over at Griselda when he mentioned Harley's homosexuality, and she didn't bat an eye. _Good, hopefully it won't impact her when she finds out about me._

"But there was one factor that none of Harley's friends liked... his obsessive boyfriend Mikhail. The guy was about 27 when he took Harley's virginity and Harley was only 17. Talk about a cradle robber..."

"You seem to harbor some animosity towards this guy," Griselda noted like a professional. Gio nodded once in return.

"Yeah, you could say that... any time Harley spent even half of the amount of time with his friends as he did with Mik, the guy would flip out and think Harley was ignoring him or something stupid. He never seemed to know boundaries. I respected Harley absolutely and was happy that he and Mik lasted 5 years before getting committed, but I think that Harley can do _way_ better – he can be a lot happier with someone who gets him and isn't all whiney and clingy over him and shit." Giovanni rarely cussed before he'd dropped his nickname, but he was quite a different person now and scars of the past still re-opened occasionally, causing him quite a bit of pain.

"So you think Harley would have been better with someone else?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact. He could have been happy with someone who understands him, someone who's been friends with him for a long-ass time, someone who can do crazy stuff with him and not worry about being looked down upon by someone who's supposed to love him...someone like-"

"You." Griselda stated flatly. Gio turned with slightly furrowed brows.

"... Yeah," was all he could say. Griselda's expression was not one of discontent or anger, but of bewilderment.

"Gio... do you listen to yourself when you say those things? You sound obsessed! You sound like you would do the exact same thing to him as Mikhail is doing! You sound like you would never let him see the light of day." Gio closed his eyes, and the young woman watched quietly as her friend stood up.

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Gio shouted, causing Griselda to quickly reel back in surprise against the neon green couch.

"I love Harley and I would let him stay out as long as he wanted, let him have a good time, not call him every hour of the day, not ask him where he's going, how long he'll be out and all that... I would let him be a free man, and let him do whatever he wants." Gio finished with a sigh and sat back down.

"I want him to be happy... but I feel like he's not going to be with Mik. The guy's nice but they've been together way too long and it's not based on love – it's based on sex. They have nothing in common, they can't see eye-to-eye on anything and..." he trailed off, leaving Griselda to recover.

"Why don't you call him and see how he's doing?" she asked.

"... I dunno, I feel like I should move on with my life. But sometimes... someone never leaves you."

"Was he your first love?"

"... I think he was my only love. My angel..." he whispered the last two words and put his head into his hands.

"Gio... I don't mean to sound like a therapist but I think you should give him a call," she said firmly. He looked up with stressed eyes, and nodded.

"I probably should. I apologize for shouting at you earlier, I get really passionate when it comes to him."

"I can tell – your feelings for him run very deep," she responded with a small smile.

"Well, he's wonderful and I love him to pieces. We can be friends and lovers at the same time... at least that's how I always imagined it. Instead of always putting up with his lover, why not embrace him and be so incredibly happy to be with him?"

"Sounds to me like you just want him to be happy. Well Gio, give him a call soon and see how things are and then you can decide what to do from there. Where is he?"

"... Los Angeles." Griselda bit her lip and furrowed her brows.

"... No wonder it's been so stressful on you. So far away and you are still so attached to him. Did he ever admit that he felt the same way?"

"Well, he said I was his first crush, but that was years after the fact and by then he was already with Mik. He didn't seem like he'd be interested again... but then again, where there's a will." He winked at Griselda who smirked back.

"It seems like you've invested a lot into this Harley. I hope he's worth it." She leaned back, making herself a bit more comfortable.

"Every ounce and more. Ever since that day I saw him in high school, with his shirt off, he's just captivated me every time. I'm so madly in love with him that it hurts sometimes... hell, most of the time. I feel like everyone I know has backstabbed me but him. In trying to make myself happy, I've never actually ended up being so because someone else had something in mind. It was never about me – it was about other people or their emotions... am I a horrible person for wanting to find love?"

"I wouldn't say so, but if your actions affect someone else's life in a negative way, you've really gotta consider what you're doing. And you saw him with his shirt off? You sure that's not based in lust?"

"Maybe a little... but there has to be some sort of physical attraction in order to start a relationship. It's definitely not the first thing on my mind when I'm around him. I feel like I'm drawn to his personality – even when he's unhappy or angry, I'm willing to be there for him and help him through it."

"That's a good thing – wow, Gio, it seems like you've definitely thought this through! Why did you never confess to him?"

"... He got committed to Mik. They moved to LA because Harley got a music deal, even though they both didn't want to, it was good money."

"Yeesh. Well, the least you can do is call him and see how things are."

"... I will eventually. First, I should get to work," Gio said, checking his watch.

"Alright hon, well thank you for stopping by and letting me bare my soul to you, heh."

"Any time. I have a few more questions about that, but I'm sure you can answer them later," he told her with a smile. She returned the smile.

"Enjoy your first day at work!"

He closed the door gently behind him and walked back to his room across the hall with a smile on his face. He unlocked the door and walked in, closing it behind him and glancing to his right to look at Tybalt's room. The door was closed, which meant that Tybalt was back. Some classical music was playing from beyond the door, which meant that he was 'doing art' or whatever. Gio slipped into his room and stripped off his button-up short-sleeve shirt, his tank top underneath, socks and baggy jeans with a chain attached to them...

A phone card flailed out from the chain as he flung them on his bed.

"Whoa... I almost forgot about this," Gio muttered to himself as he picked up the card. It was the phone card Cyanide had given him, attached to the jeans so he wouldn't lose it. He decided it would be best to call after he'd gotten his training done for the day. Leaving his casual clothes strewn on the bed, he threw on his white undershirt, his long-sleeve button-up white shirt, his tie, his suit-jacket, his slacks and his business shoes.

After around 10 minutes of struggling to get all the buttons on and lining everything up, he glanced over to the mirror. He was quite a stunning sight – the suit his stepfather had bought him went well with his skin tone, his eyes and hair. His hair... he needed to comb that or something. He clomped over to the sink in his leather shoes and pulled out his comb to brush his hair over. It wasn't working when it was dry, so he saturated it and tried it again – better. Not perfect, but better. He tossed his wet comb lazily into the top drawer – he and Tybalt had separate bathrooms so they didn't worry about messes. He returned to his room to grab a few belongings and a bag for files, glancing in the mirror one last time to make sure everything was in place. Yup – he looked like a monkey alright. Slicked hair, pressed suit, stick-up-the-ass posture... everything was perfect. He sighed and walked out the door, down the stairs and onto the street, catching a cab to his workplace.

His training was mundane, everything he did applied to his degree but none of it really seemed to matter. He was somewhat passionate about business, but not enough for it to really get him excited for his job. He'd primarily chosen the degree because he knew it could take him places, and he had enough interest in it to keep him coming back to classes and finishing the assignments – but this was the real world now, and he had to work full-time just to make ends meet.

His co-workers were all older than him, all a bit snootier and all dressed in business suits like his. Theirs were typically a hound's-tooth brown/black pattern, which wasn't bad but hurt the eyes when *everyone* in the office wore one. Well, all the males at least. Women were only allowed to wear black suits (coat, blouse, skirt – all formal). The monotony of it all drove Gio up the wall, with no names or faces sticking out, which only made him feel more uncomfortable.

After about 5 hours of training, he walked back to his apartment. He found out he was only about 4 blocks away from his work place so he decided to walk from then-on.

Giovanni DiAngelo trudged up the stairs to his apartment and glanced over at Griselda's door, noticing a bit of light shining under the bottom of the door. He decided not to bother her since he'd just seen her earlier that day. He unlocked his door and walked in, closing it quietly. Tybalt was standing in the kitchen making an early dinner.

"How was work?" he asked with clear disinterest.

"It was fun," Gio responded with clear sarcasm. He took off his tie and began to unbutton his shirt a bit, heading towards his bedroom. Tybalt took instant notice.

"Rawr," he said, making Gio stop and cock an eyebrow with a look of mild disgust.

"Rawr?"

"Yeah... that actually looks really hot when it looks like you're about to undress from your work uniform. That color goes really well with the rest of you, by the way..." Tybalt licked his top lip. Giovanni rolled his eyes and kept his look of disgust confined to his inner self. He wasn't in the mood for this, though he was a bit horny from his stress lately.

"Hey now, c'mon, we could just fool around for a little bit if you want..." Tybalt attempted.

"I've got things to take care of," was all his friend responded with. Gio may have had some urges, but Tybalt's sleaziness prevented him from giving in. He'd only done that once... and there were other reasons behind that. He walked through his doorway, ignoring the fake-pouting redhead behind him, and threw his tie onto the bed. He set up the rest of his clothes onto their hangars – they would be used again tomorrow. Better keep them in good shape!

He glanced at his pants still lazily flung onto the bed. The phone card glinted from his room light as he tilted his head to look at it, almost like it was begging to be activated. Like he had to talk to his best friend once again about his love with Harlequinn.

"Fine, sheesh," he told nobody, as he picked it up and began dialing the proper numbers. He finally dialed Cyanide's number when he was prompted.

One ring. Nothing.

Two rings. Still nothing.

Three rings. _Geez, he's usually good about answering the phone..._

Fourth ring. "Hullo?" It was him!

"Cyanide, it's me."

"Heya Skids! What's up? Holy crap dude, it's been like three days! How's New York?"

_Crap, there's all sorts of unexpected stuff I have to prepare for today..._ Giovanni had never mentioned to Cyanide that he no longer preferred to be called 'Skids.'

"Uh it's... well, the scenery is nice! And I already made a new friend after just two days of living here!" That would suffice for now.

"Sweet, buddy – I know you always make new friends wherever you go. What's his name?"

"Um... her name. Her name is Griselda."

"Griselda? Why does that name sound familiar...?"

"It's a Mexican name, you might already know someone by that name," Gio responded with a chuckle.

"Oh yeah! My 4th aunt on my mom's side. So how's life with the Tybs-monster?"

"He might be lurking right outside my door so I don't think I can really say anything." He paused for a moment, heard a four letter word mumbled outside his door, followed by heavy footsteps headed towards the other side of the apartment. This was followed by the loud closing of a door.

"Wow, I heard that," Cyanide said, "so I take it no good?"

"Not really. Wait..." Gio paused for another moment.

"Tybalt, I know you're still out there!" he shouted towards his door. Another four letter word, and this time Tybalt went back to his room for good (Gio opened his door and checked).

"Okay, he's gone now."

"Persistent bastard, huh? Creeper groped me, punched me and now he's living with you? Bleah."

"Yeah... pretty much. He went out and brought home 2 people last night, who slammed the door upon leaving at 7 in the morning. And now he's trying to be all 'rawr' or whatever with me, but I'm not touching that with a 20-foot pole."

"Good! I wouldn't either; you might get herpes or something." Gio frowned nervously, uncertain as to whether or not he should tell Cya that he'd already slept with Tybalt once.

"Um, how's things back home?"

"Pretty good, actually, Ronnie and I just made up and now she's in the shower and we're getting ready for the make-up sex, heh heh." Gio didn't feel like talking about Ronnie, so instead he focused on the other part.

"Sweet. That's always...uh...nice?" Gio had never been in a real relationship so he assumed that whatever Cyanide was talking about was pleasant based on his voice inflections.

"Dammit, Skids! Of course it is!! Why wouldn't it be?"

"Please...don't call me Skids." Silence.

"... Why not?" The tone in Cya's voice had changed to one he recognized only when Cyanide was doing chemistry or when he was very, very serious.

"Because I... um, I don't really like that name anymore. Sounds like a kid's name."

"But dude, you're a kid at heart. I sometimes wonder if puberty forgot your brain but just changed your body."

"That was then. Things have changed a lot since I moved, Cya."

"It was three days ago-"

"Well, a lot can happen in just an hour. So imagine 72." Mr. DiAngelo had become a very stern individual when he wanted to be. It used to be his 'act-like-an-adult' moments occurred once every month or so, at most. Today, they were all he seemed to have.

"... Point. Well, at least you've gotten over Harley and have moved on, right?"

Silence once again.

"Ski-Giovanni...tell me you have. Please."

"... I can't stop thinking about him, Cyanide. He never leaves my mind. I don't even care if it's obsession anymore, I just have to be with him. No matter what I do, it all comes back to Harley. Always."

"Buddy, look... I know this is kind of a stretch but I can understand how you feel. And sometimes, there really is someone out there who's better than what you think! I used to be in love with somebody, too, and then I met someone who changed my life – Ronnie. Now her and I have talked things out and we're on our way to moving in with each other!"

"Who were you in love with before?" Gio asked innocently.

"Uh... it doesn't matter anymore. The point is that sometimes someone comes along and changes your world-"

"Someone did come along to change my world! His name is Harlequinn Goldman and I love him!!"

Silence ensued for the third time during that conversation, and then a sigh was heard from Cya's end of the call.

"Giovanni... buddy... he's in love with Mik. You know that. There's nothing you can do about it." Cyanide was right. There was the one obstacle that had stood in Gio's way since the night he tried to date Harley – his boyfriend of 5 years.

"... Yeah, that's true but... I dunno, I...need to go to sleep now." His argument had fallen flat and he didn't know what to do.

"Really? It's like, 6 PM over there..." Cyanide began.

"I'll catch ya later, Cya. My number's the same. Have fun with Ronnie!" And he hung up on his best friend.

He collapsed into his bed once again, his mind numb from losing the argument and the monotony that had become his life. He stripped off the last of his clothes and hung them up, hoping for a better tomorrow as he fell into bed and turned off the lights. Going to sleep so early was unheard-of for him, but he had placed dark sheets over the windows to block out some noise and most sunlight. He sat and stared at the ceiling for a few hours, letting the light from his phone occasionally ignite his room as someone (probably Cyanide) called him or texted him multiple times (his phone was on silent). He didn't care, though – this was his life now, and he was only beginning to adjust to it.

* * *

If you like it, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave a review; otherwise I have no way of knowing if I should continue this or not! If I get at least one review, I'll start working on Chapter 4 once my finals are done. Thanks for reading!


	4. Business

Alright, this one should have a little more oomph to it, seeing as I'm going all-out and taking full advantage of having no more school (starting June 13th) for either 7 months or forever. ^_^

Again, with the reviews and the leaving...please. Thank you.

* * *

Gio awoke abruptly to his alarm going off. He rubbed the sleep off his eyes and stretched his arms across his queen-sized bed; it was pretty early, almost 6:30, but he had work early anyway so he decided to get up on-time and not mess up on his first real day in the 'real world.'

He shut off his alarm and dangled both bare legs over the side of the bed, glancing out the window. He came to the realization that his apartment was very large and he didn't hear a whole lot of horn-honking or police sirens or fire trucks on a regular basis (AN: just heard a police car when I typed this, lol). He had seen movies and documentaries about New York before and it had always been a busy, cramped city in his mind, so he was expecting that when he came here, but it seemed he got the one apartment where things were quiet. The sun shone through his cheap metal blinds and lit up the room with warm, white lines. He could even hear a bird chirping in the distance, along with a few cars passing, but no honking, no dismay, no grit. It seemed like beauty followed him wherever he went... but he was never quite happy anyway. He glanced at his phone and saw a few missed calls. Seven or nine, he didn't really commit it to long-term memory at that moment. He had no voice mails, though, so he flipped his phone shut and got up.

He opened his closet door to see his colorful wardrobe – smiley faces adorned half of his button-up shirts. Though the clothes were always smiling at him, he rarely smiled back nowadays.

_Ugh, I feel like one of those emo high school losers that only hangs out at the mall...next thing you know, I'll be doing that._

He shook off the mundane and pulled out the same business suit he'd worn yesterday. This time, a different undershirt and a different button-up long-sleeve shirt, but besides that, it was the same old thing. He piled up his clothes and opened his bedroom door to see Tybalt cooking himself breakfast. Sausage and eggs, it smelled like.

"Morning, dear!" Tybalt chirped like they were a couple.

"Uh...morning," Gio responded, quickly rushing to the bathroom with his head down.

"Oh but don't you want breakfast?" his red-headed friend asked in a little too-happy of a voice.

"Yeah, but first I've gotta shower so I can head out – I have work in...an hour." He was at the bathroom door now.

"Then you have plenty of time, dea-"

"Shower first," Gio said cutting him off as he closed the door. He sighed quietly – he could almost feel the heat from Tybalt's intense glare through the door.

_He changes moods more often than Mik, geez...well, go figure, the two did date._

He ran the hot water and began his morning ritual.

Giovanni exited the shower clean and ready about seven minutes later. He grabbed the nearest navy blue towel and wiped himself down, getting his work clothes on shortly afterward. He finally opened the bathroom door and saw his breakfast sitting on the table, ready for him to eat.

"Hope you like your eggs scrambled!" Tybalt practically sang as he washed the dishes.

_Weirdo..._

"I do, actually. Thanks for breakfast!" Gio said, finally appeasing his 'friend.'

"Absolutely! Oh, and I figured I'd let you know that my first work of art is done and I already have someone coming to look at my old pieces to get an idea of what I'll be painting in the future. They'll be here around eleven."

"That's alright; I have work from eight to four-thirty so I won't be here for a while."

"Mmkay then!" Tybalt finished with a smile that was just a little too wide.

Gio decided it was best to ignore Tybalt's freakishly happy mood and simply eat what he was served. It tasted pretty good, too – but he wasn't surprised, seeing as Tybalt had a knack for cooking. Even just plain old sausage and eggs tasted wonderful.

"So did you paint something pretty good then?" Gio asked, trying to occupy his mind before work and to prevent Tybalt from acting any more creepily happy.

"Sure did! But it's a secret, only the buyer has seen it. He says he wants it for his private collection and he's willing to pay quite the handsome price for it," Tybalt went on, the sly in his voice emerging.

"That sounds like a good start..." Gio responded, finally finishing the last scraps on his plate. He was full, though he hadn't eaten a whole lot.

"Sure is! I can't wait to see if he brings me more clients...depending on what I paint, I'll bring in more and more money at least from him!"

"Cool," Gio said, already checked out from the conversation. He put his plate up on the counter and muttered a 'thanks again' before he grabbed his keys and opened the door.

"Be sure to smile today!" Tybalt sang. Gio didn't respond before he closed the door – right now a smile was the last thing on his mind.

He walked to work amongst busy and noisy traffic; now the congestion of the city reared its ugly head. He finally reached his office building and went to the 7th floor, where he began his real work. It was mundane, like yesterday, and he kept glancing out the window with a hand under his chin, wondering if Harley was happier in LA than he was in New York. His co-workers joked on occasion about various things but he never really laughed at them – a fake one, or a chuckle, but never a real laugh. He was trying to adjust to his workplace, but it was slow and difficult because the environment was so dull in terms of colors. He was used to everything being so lively and colorful, but this environment where everyone dressed the same (except for him) just hurt the eyes. Some people even began to cast him dirty looks for having a differently-colored suit than the rest. By the time he was about to ask them about it, it was time for him to leave. At least time flew when he was here.

He began to walk back to his pad and felt a drop on his right cheek. He quickly glanced up, hoping it wasn't a bird taking a piss on him. Nope – only clouds. A rainstorm must have been coming. He quickened his pace, hoping to miss the storm.

When he finally entered his complex, his hair was dripping from the precipitation. His new suit would have to be ironed or tossed in the dryer. He sighed and made his way up the stairs, but then he smiled a bit because he remembered how he liked the rain. On occasions like this, however, it was not the most enjoyable thing.

He walked up the stairs to his place and entered the hall, glancing down. Griselda's door was open. He wondered why, and then decided to investigate – he was headed that way anyway.

"Yeah, I think it was really cool of him to come over and talk to me, y'know?" He recognized the voice right off the bat and began to walk a bit faster. He couldn't see anyone, though. He saw lights protruding from the entryways of both doors, but the voices remained disembodied.

"He's a really good guy; I'm not surprised that he would help you through a rough time, whatever it may have been." Apparently, Tybalt and Griselda were talking while each standing a little behind their doorways. He finally made it to their parallel apartments and stopped as he saw Tybalt and Griselda standing in her living room.

"Hey Gio! Oh wow, you look sopped," she said cringing a bit in empathy.

"Didn't quite miss the storm, huh?" Tybalt noted, raising both his eyebrows quickly so as to intimidate Gio. It didn't work.

"No, I didn't. Now if you'll excuse me, I must go change and figure out how to dry my only suit." The young Italian man turned around and began to cross the hall to go to his place.

"You could use my iron if you want!" Griselda chimed in. He hesitated for a second, uncertain as to whether or not he should do so. The only reason behind this hesitation was the fact that Tybalt was watching him like a hawk. He didn't know why, or how, but he knew.

"No thanks, I've got my own. I've gotta get out of these clothes anyway, they're freezing!" he fake-smiled as he turned back around toward his apartment door. He shut it gently behind him, making sure it remained unlocked, and walked to his room. He quickly stripped off his coat and hung it up in his closet, waiting for the sweet smell of rain to permeate at least his closet before taking it back out to put on the ironing board.

He finished ironing the whole suit and marinated in the scent which followed – a crisp combination of both starch and rain. Somehow, it mixed together quite well. He hung up his suit again and decided to quickly dry off his hair in his bathroom. Gio exited the room, glancing over at the door to see if Griselda and Tybalt were still talking. They were, and thankfully Tybalt had his back to Gio. He simply opened his bathroom door and grabbed out the hand towel, drying his hair rapidly with it. It didn't matter how mussed up it got, he had no more work today. He smiled, realizing he was done with his job for now...but then frowned, realizing this was just the beginning of his new life.

"Ha – look at you, Gio, you look just like Gohan!" shouted Griselda. He immediately giggled, recognizing the Anime reference which would have been meaningless had he not met Ronnie, Cyanide's current girlfriend. Funny how things seemed to loop around – Griselda was like the culmination of all his previous friends. A bit more damaged, obviously, but very much like so many he knew back home...minus Tybalt.

"You like DBZ?" he asked his friend with a surprised but happy expression.

"Hell yeah I do! Sure, 5/6 of it is the characters powering up, but the other 1/6 rocks!" The two laughed together and began to discuss more of the show, including their favorite characters and sagas. Tybalt smirked, mildly amused but obviously disappointed now that he was no longer the center of their neighbor's attention.

"So, children, did we want to have dinner together again?" the redhead shot into the conversation, trying to catch everyone's attention. Gio glared for a second at the interruption, and then used a diversionary tactic, hiding his emotions.

"Actually, I kinda wanted to go out tonight. See if there are any cool restaurants out there in the Big Apple!" the young man said vibrantly.

"Oh I know of a few great ones! You should try this one that's just a couple blocks away; they've got incredible appetizers..." Griselda began.

"I was thinking I could cook us up something, actually," replied Tybalt, his eyes flitting back towards her for a second before they returned to Gio.

"Nah, the restaurant Grisey's talking about sounds awesome! Let's try it out!" he retorted, leaving Tybalt to sulk and scowl while Griselda literally jumped for joy.

"I'll go get dressed for it! It's pretty casual, but I like to make a little scene of myself, hee!"

She disappeared without another word, slamming the door out of sheer excitement.

"I'm gonna try wearing a few seductive smiley faces," Gio told Tybalt, sporting his 'ha ha, I got my way' look. The young man hadn't sufficiently changed, seeing as he was only wearing his undershirt and the same pair of jeans as yesterday. Rushing back to his bedroom, he planned out his outfit – smiley face over-shirt, sharp blue undershirt, baggy cargo shorts and his steel-toed boots with no-show socks. Sweet.

Once he was in his bedroom, he quickly stripped off his clothes and changed accordingly. He glanced at the full-body mirror which came with his apartment and looked himself over. Sexy indeed, albeit a little baggy here and there, but it would do. The young man swung open his door to see, much to his surprise, Tybalt standing right in front of him.

"Uh...hey. What's up?" he asked, still a bit stunned.

"Why did you do that? Couldn't you tell I was trying to get on her good side?" he hissed at Gio.

"You can get on her good side by continuing to talk to her when we go to that restaurant," he reinforced, but the redhead didn't want to listen.

"No! I wanted to cook for everyone and you took that away from me! What's the matter with you?" Gio could practically see fire in Tybalt's eyes. Something different was behind this, but the Italian man decided to pretend otherwise.

"Because I think it would be great to see Grisey in a public setting – we would get to see what she acts like around people besides us. Have you noticed that we've never seen her outside this apartment? She might be a completely different person!"

It worked. Tybalt's anger faded into confusion and his eyes wandered to the left.

"You're right. She might be someone completely different. Good call, Gio, thanks for looking out for me." Much to Gio's surprise (and dismay), Tybalt leaned in for a kiss. After a couple seconds of awkward backing away by Gio, Tybalt planted a kiss on Gio's cheek. The poor man was half-tempted to wipe it away that instant but he couldn't. Not yet.

"Alright, I'll go get dressed!" Tybalt took off and closed his door quietly.

"God he's weird," Gio said out loud, vigorously wiping his cheek as he walked over to Griselda's place. He knocked on the door quickly, to hear a rustling behind the door, followed by his friend opening it up with her keys in her mouth as she tried to put on a tight green jacket. She was wearing a black dress underneath, one that was rather form-fitting.

"Mmf! Mffmffffmrrrhmmphhhmrrr." She stated. Gio tilted his head, laughed, and then took the keychain by one key hanging off to the side, allowing her to speak once more.

"Hey! I'm ready to go when you are." She said casually like she hadn't just sounded like a fool.

"Sweet – Tybalt's getting ready. Apparently, he really wanted to cook but I'd rather go with your instincts," he said, ruffling her hair a bit. She smiled in response.

"Gio, anyone but you would die for doing that after all the product I just put in there." He paused, looked at his hand, which somehow had no hair product on it, and then began to laugh nervously.

"Yeah I know!" He turned and a scared expression met his face. The young man walked across the hall and turned to Tybalt's door. Unsure of why he was doing so, he walked up to it and gave three brief raps. The door instantly opened on the third knock and Tybalt stood before him in a purple long-sleeve button up shirt with tight jeans. _Jeans? Why's he wearing jeans? He never wears those..._

"Are you ready?" asked Tybalt, leaning on one side of the door frame.

"I was gonna ask you the same thing," Gio responded.

"Yeah, let's go," Tybalt said, quickly dashing past him. Gio tilted his head, raised one eyebrow and decided to just go with it.

The next couple of hours of his life seemed to montage by, as he walked down the stairs behind Tybalt and Griselda, who were anxiously chatting away and laughing about the city. He glanced out the window on the balcony of the 17th floor to look at the night-time city. His trance began – it was beautiful! There were so many lights everywhere and people still hustling about like it was daytime. The street lights and store signs and traffic lights and headlights of passing cars lit up the city like it was all a giant firefly. The people walked around among bright-blue neon signs, unflattering peach street lights, and bright white headlights. There were people in coats, people in very little clothes at all, and some people in just a t-shirt and jeans, walking around casually like nobody else's business. Thankfully this all took the span of about ten seconds, so he quickly resumed following his friends, who were almost bounding down the stairs, the nighttime obviously their muse.

The new trio practically pranced out onto the street – it might as well have been dawn, with all the activity and light still occurring around 7 PM on an autumn night in the city. All three of them walked casually over to the restaurant of which Griselda spoke, looking at all the sites they passed along the way. While Griselda led the way, Tybalt started to back up to speak to Gio.

"Hey, she's not really acting any differently. Just a little happier, if anything," he told his 'friend.'

"Yeah, she's not the type to fake anything," was his only response before he let himself fall back into auto-pilot so he could observe the rest of the city. It was so beautiful – there were so many stories around him, of all the people who passed him, all the people who were headed in the same direction as him, all the people headed in the opposite direction as him, all the people jogging, all the people walking, all the people driving cars...

_Maybe I can get used to this...and finally move on with my own life._

"Here we are!" Griselda exclaimed. They had stumbled across an Indian buffet. Gio vaguely snapped back into reality, exclaiming some word of happiness like "shibby" or "sweet" with an authentic tone of happiness, but not an authentic tone of...presence. Griselda didn't seem to notice, so she led the two inside and they were quickly seated by a kind young girl. They gorged themselves silly and enjoyed the hell out of it. The food was as colorful as the jokes they exchanged among themselves, Tybalt simultaneously hitting on the waitress and (yet again) pointing out some ugly people sitting at another booth, mocking them and making faces at Griselda. She almost shot water out of her nose because she was laughing so hard, Gio recalled.

However, at long last, it came time for them to leave this amazing place with red booth seats and light brown tables. They all walked back to their apartment very satisfied and very happy. Gio's trance with the city began to fade as he walked back up the stairs. The three could hardly believe they were even trying to walk up those Mount Everest-like stairs. Might as well have tried to jump to the moon.

When they finally managed to trudge themselves up to their floor (panting, sweating, Tybalt almost began to crawl on all fours), they made their way slowly over to their respective rooms.

Griselda finally hurled herself against her door, as quietly as she possibly could, saying to the others something about 'thanks' and 'I'd love to do it again,' though they were all too food-comatose to really enjoy anything anymore.

"Yeah thanks, it was awesome, can't wait for tomorrow, g'night," Gio uttered back. Tybalt simply smiled a food-coma smile and then turned to trudge into the apartment with Gio.

After that night, nothing too special ever really happened. While Gio began to adjust to his new job (paperwork and co-workers alike), Tybalt began to sell more art, and Griselda finally revealed her occupation – a 24-hour diner on the outskirts of Wall Street. That was why her hours of being awake and asleep were so odd. The two went in to visit her at work on occasion, where her personality barely changed – only more proper so she would fit the 'ideal waitress' stereotype which the customers so loved.

Gio began to spend more time with Griselda, but so did Tybalt. While the Italian-American man would watch endless hours of Buffy with her and draw various things on various surfaces, much to her glee, Tybalt and her would sometimes go out on the town, usually returning drunk, or he would try to teach her how to paint. She was uninterested in learning the 'proper' way of painting, which enraged him at times, but he dealt with it and figured he would get through to her sooner or later.

Before they knew it, a month had gone by. By the end of said month, he was well-established at his workplace, was spending almost every night with Griselda, and was keeping Tybalt out of his hair about 95% of the time. Life couldn't be better.

One night, however, when he was over at Griselda's place watching some season of Buffy, he began to compare himself to all the men in the show. He looked at his arms, which were getting a little flabby. His chest seemed a little weak, too. Not that it looked bad; it had just seen better days. He told Griselda of his plan.

"Grisey!" he shouted as she quickly paused the episode.

"Gio! What?" she responded just as loudly.

"I have decided that I am going to start working out! So I can stop looking like fail and start looking like WIN!" Griselda simply tilted her head, cocked an eyebrow and smiled in response.

"Well, you already look like 'win' to me, but if you want, you go right ahead and just get bigger."

"That's what she said," he responded to her quickly, smirking and chuckling. Brown hair fell down to cover his left eye.

"Wow, that hair of yours sure is growing quickly. You should get it trimmed soon!"

"Well I... don't really want to," he uttered, quickly regressing into his past friendships. He lowered his head and both of his eyes were now covered by his hair.

"Let me guess... your hair was a bit longer when you were hanging around with Harls and Cya, right?" She had already learned a lot about him and even the pet nicknames the three had for each other. Gio never really had one, just the standard nickname.

"Yeah... I feel like this workplace is choking off parts of my personality. Instead of being colorful and creative and fun-loving, I'm just what they want me to be. I'm being pruned from the wild and crazy rosebush I was to this...thing. It doesn't even look natural; it just looks like they want me to look."

The two sat in silence for a couple of moments before Griselda put her hand on Gio's.

"Hey. Hon...it's gonna be alright," she told him with a warm smile, "All you need to do is keep on trucking. Start working out, it'll get your mind off other things. Help you focus on your future instead of someone else's."

She did have a good point. Why did all his friends end up being completely right?

"Yeah, you're totally right about that. Speaking of getting my mind off things, what time is it?" he asked her. She glanced down at her thin leather watch.

"It's... only 10 PM, why?"

"Ah, just checking. Let's watch some more of this episode before I go!" She smiled back at him and picked back up the remote, eagerly resuming the episode. Once it was finished, she told him about a 24-hour gym that was close-by so he could go whenever he needed to blow off some steam, whether it be due to work or...other things.

"Speaking of...other things...how's Harley? Or your love life, for that matter?" she mentioned with a cruel smirk.

"Same as always. Harley on the brain, everybody else is just kind of a dull blur."

"What about Tybalt? He seems pretty sexy, and it almost seems like you two have a history together when it comes to that," she summarized with a wink.

"We...do, but it's nothing I'm proud of," Gio responded, his face squinting to one side.

"Oh why not? He's a sexy guy, you could probably honestly get along with that pretty well, and he doesn't seem like the type to attach emotionally at all!"

_If only you knew..._

"There's a few reasons I'm not...into Tybalt, but that's all from my own experiences. He might be good for someone else, though," Gio lied, gritting his teeth a bit. He didn't want to lie to Griselda but he knew if he said bad things about Tybalt, they would definitely change the relationship between his roommate and his new best friend. This would almost assuredly arouse suspicions that he had said things behind Tybalt's back and the redhead would probably lash out at him and make his life a living hell, knowing full well it was due to Gio, the only man in the city who really knew him.

"Well, maybe! We'll have to see then, won't we?" Griselda responded.

"Huh?"

"I'm getting tired," Grisey said with a yawn, "and you should probably head out pretty soon. I've got work in a few hours; I want to get in a nap first. You have yourself a good night, mmkay?" She smiled at him without showing her teeth. She sure was pretty – even in TV light.

"I sure will," he said, leaning in and kissing her on the cheek. She instantly flushed to a deep red and turned her head down and to the right.

"Wow that was... wow," she uttered.

"Grisey, I couldn't help it! You remind me so much of all my friends back home and you really do bring out the best in me. I'm so glad I got this apartment – otherwise I never would've met someone as wonderful as you," he told her, smiling the whole time. He leaned down once more and gave her a hug. She returned it with one arm, obviously still a bit bothered by the experience (AN: if ya know what I mean).

"Well I'll be going now," he told her, "have fun at work!" By now she had recovered – a sign of improvement in many ways.

"I sure will! Sleep tight!"

Gio wandered on over to his apartment, opened the door and shut it. The living area was becoming a bit messy, with a couple of plates left on the coffee table and a few dishes still in the sink, but he didn't much mind. It wasn't his job to keep the place clean anyway.

The young man wandered off to his own room, glancing at the whole apartment along the way. He noticed few decorations, and a mildly drab living area. It could definitely use some improvement, but right now he was just trying to get by. His job was paying well, but things around here were expensive. Food was expensive, clothes were expensive, bills were expensive, and rent was incredibly expensive. He was promised a 'good job,' but because everything was so expensive in the city he never seemed to have any left over for himself. After a brief sigh, he walked through his door, ignoring Tybalt's classical music once again. Life, as usual, and as per boring usual, had resumed.

Another month passed. He awoke every weekday to his mundane job. It wasn't horrible, but it was the same thing over and over again. Another haircut left him feeling almost bald, but he decided it was for the best to help himself move on.

It was early November now, but oddly enough the snow decided to wait for the Big Apple. Gio had been letting off a lot of steam at the gym lately, and his body showed it – where there used to be a well-toned ex-martial artist, now shone an amateur bodybuilder. His biceps, thighs, calves, and even chest were all bulkier than before. His waist managed to remain almost the same size, and his clothes still fit, but they were a bit tighter than before. Anyone who saw him walking around would know not to mess with him, because his muscles shone through in the way he walked. Tybalt, of course, had tried to make advances on him due to this but Gio always waved it off, knowing full-well that Tybalt could do nothing about it. One time Tybalt was a bit creepy about it though, so Gio began to lock his door at night. He was never awoken, but he knew better than to trust such an oddball living in the same space as him.

Griselda would sometimes meet him at the gym; she lifted weights occasionally, but was obviously more interested in toning and keeping a slim 'feminine' figure than bulking up like he was.

But after a couple days into November, Gio's feelings for Harley began to return. The changing colors of the autumn reminded him of all the days he spent under the trees in the park they always went to, the dives they took into the giant leaf piles, the flavors of the large burgers they would grab afterward...it all began to rush back to the young man. His weight regimen began to increase, and he would continually pump more and more weight every time he went to the gym – it helped his muscles only a small amount, it mostly served to make him sore but gain little mass.

One day, as he was walking past Central Park on his way back from the gym, exhausted and sweaty in work-out clothes, he glanced over to the park to see...two young men walking along, holding hands. Curiosity got a hold of him, and he walked up to the railing surrounding the park, trying to poke his head between the tight bars to no avail. One had black hair, light olive skin and was taller and more muscular than the other, who was short, had dirty blonde hair, pale skin and a slender figure. The autumn leaves surrounding and falling around them seemed almost musical, intertwining them in a magickal way. The two began to act very playfully around one another; the shorter one pushed the taller one with a smile on his face. In response, the taller one tossed his boyfriend into a large pile of leaves. Laughter and shouts ensued, the shorter one clearly enjoying himself (though he was pretending otherwise) and the two rolled around on the ground, laughing and smiling as though they hadn't another care in the world. Gio clenched his teeth in envy and regret. He quickly pulled away from the bars, almost backing into a bystander, and walked back to his place faster, clutching his left arm (which seemed to have an odd throbbing pain to it lately).

He took the elevator, since his legs were a bit sore as well, and trudged up the steps, eager for a nap or some muscle relaxant. He'd invested a bit of money into supplements and muscle relaxant in case he overexerted himself (like he knew he would).

He heard Tybalt and Griselda talking outside their doors again but instead of stopping to talk to them, he simply walked through his doorway to get to his place, ignoring anything they said. His emotions had become more powerful than any time before in his life in the Big Apple, and he didn't want to say anything stupid to the only two people who meant something to him in this big city. He tried his hardest not to slam his bedroom door, and rapidly scanned his room to check for the muscle relaxant. He finally located it and greedily opened the bottle, almost taking two before he realized it would have disastrous consequences. He then began to calm down, taking a seat on his bed, shaking one pill out of the container, and grasping up his water bottle on the nightstand to aid him in consuming it. Just after he'd swallowed the pill of relief, he heard a knock on his door. His eyes narrowed.

_Tybalt, I swear to God if you try some stupid shi-_

"Gio? It's Griselda, I wanted to see how you were doing," he heard beyond the door. Gio's head pushed itself back in surprise, and he muttered a 'come in' as she opened the door and closed it behind her.

"How you doing, hon? I was worried when you didn't say anything to me," she told him, sitting down on his bed next to him.

"I just have a lot on my mind is all. Did Tybalt say anything?"

"No, not really, he just shook his head and went back to his room. Weird, because we were in the middle of a conversation..."

"I'm sorry Grisey, I've just got..." Gio began, putting his head in his hands.

"... You're missing Harley pretty bad, aren't you?" she asked him. She placed a friendly hand on his shoulder.

"... Yeah. I saw this couple walking around in City Park and they reminded me of how playful he and I used to be with each other, except they were actually dating, but I'm on the other side of the country from the only person I really truly love," he uttered with his head still in his hands, only exposing his mouth so his words wouldn't be muffled.

"What about me, hon? You don't love me?" she asked innocently.

"I do, Grisey, but you know it's strictly platonic and besides, you wouldn't want to put up with someone as emotional and immature as me," he reminded her. She pulled his hands away from his face, holding onto one tightly.

"That's not true, Giovanni. You and I hang out together all the time no matter what's going on in your life. You were there for me when I broke down about my ex, and I'm here for you now that you're struggling with all the emotions that come along with your baggage. You can count on me. Promise." She smiled at him and he gave a friendly smile back, though his eyes were pink from struggling to hold back the tears.

"C'mere, hon," she said, pulling him in towards her chest where he could lay his head. He calmly did so, but still refused to cry, instead simply biting his lip and clenching his fist which was not holding Griselda's hand.

"I know how tough it can be missing someone, and I know sometimes you'll be thinking about him for the rest of your life...but like I said, maybe you should call him and tell him. It won't hurt, will it?"

Gio didn't respond for a short while. Instead he just lay there, basking in the comfort of a friend. He took his clenched fist to his mouth and bit his thumb a bit to bring himself back to reality.

"It might...it might not. I don't think I'm ready to talk to him considering how angry I am," he began. Griselda nodded.

"Obviously not right now, but soon. Within the next week?" He nodded, gravely, not really agreeing but simply appeasing.

"I don't want to be rude, but I need to alone right now," he told her. She stood up after a couple of moments.

"I understand. Please let me know when you're feeling better, and we'll watch some more Buffy," she told him with a small smile. She took a scrap piece of paper out of her pocket, and after browsing around Gio's nightstand for a pen, proceeded to write down something on this small piece of paper.

"My number, for the weird times when I can't come over right away," she told him as she left it. She leaned in and kissed him on the forehead, then left without another word.

Again, he was alone... but this time, by choice. He sat back on his bed, not bothering to change out of his workout clothes. He looked at the patterns the ceiling paint made for some sort of meaning or sign, but he found nothing of relevance. He sighed deeply...

Then he realized something – did Griselda love him? Love him in a stronger way that he had not intended? That wasn't good. As much as he cared for her, Harley was his one and only. His face scrutinized as he contemplated the possibilities of his relationship with Griselda. She was sweet, she was practically his twin separated at birth, but for some reason he didn't feel about her the same way he felt about his angel. He sighed, rolled over onto his side and checked his bedside clock. It read 10:52.

"I should get to sleep," he said aloud. His life had such ups and downs lately. One minute he was thinking he could get by, still infatuated with the Big Apple, and the next he had crap thrown at him that reminded him of all the cruelties he'd endured since he met Harley. He shook his head, attempting to chase away the bad thoughts.

The young man quickly removed his upper clothes, stripping down to a tank top and boxers. He glanced at the full body mirror that had been there when he'd moved in. Yeah, he was looking way buff. Surpringly, his clothes, which fit him flawlessly before he started working out on a regular basis, had almost grown with him. His suit clothes would always fit him, always hide whatever body he had beneath, but his casual clothes seemed to change as he did. He hadn't bulked out too much, but he had to the point where people would definitely notice. The female employees at the coffee shop he regularly visited had definitely taken a liking to his new figure, winking and smiling at him more often than regular, sometimes 'accidentally' giving him free coffee...but it didn't matter to him, because he could only think of one person romantically. He would return there smiles with small smirks of his own, but he would always sigh the moment he opened the door on the way out.

_Harley... why did you never tell me you felt the same way in high school? I would have dated you in a heartbeat... I miss you so much..._

Fatigue and emotions were beginning to overtake Gio, so he turned off the lights and drew his curtains, passing out almost instantly as he pulled his navy cover over himself.

Later that night, a loud bump awoke him. He jolted up in his sleep, grabbing at his temple immediately to ease the pain from such a motion.

"Careful!" he heard from beyond the door. He tilted his head and wondered what was going on. Not much caring, he walked to his door clad in very little clothing and opened it, turning to face the front door.

Light shone in from the hall, which was lit 24/7, and a small sliver of light shone out of Tybalt's room. The rest of the apartment was dark, giving it an eerie feeling. After a couple of seconds of his eyes adjusting to the light, he saw a few fairly large men dressed in all navy clothes moving what looked like a large, yet flat, burlap sack, close to the doorway. It was one of Tybalt's paintings, already covered, he concluded in his dazed state. He noticed Tybalt, clad in day clothes, practically scolding the two, though his anger subsided when he turned and noticed Gio was awake and not shouting at him. He ignored him from that point on. As soon as the men holding the painting moved it out of the hall, Gio noticed that they had been blocking someone who was standing in the hall.

A fairly tall man, about Gio's height, stood in the hall facing their apartment, his hands in his pockets. He wore a pinstripe black suit with silver stripes running vertically along it. His fedora matched his suit, and the shirt underneath his suit was red, with a black tie accenting the whole outfit. Since he sported aviator glasses, Gio could see very little of his features. He looked like he had a few scars on his reddish face, and he looked to be slightly older than Gio. After a few moments of staring towards Tybalt's room, he unmistakably turned his head to look at Gio. The young man could almost feel the stranger's gaze piercing him, though he could not even see the man's eyes. Then, the stranger smiled. Not a normal smile, no, far from it. This was the kind of smile that you back away from when you see someone looking at you with that expression. All of his teeth shone, with tiny black stains in between them (probably from smoking), and though Gio could not see his eyes, he thought that they were a little too wide at that point, so Gio backed towards his door. In a rare moment, Gio was glad to see Tybalt walk out of his room and motion to the man in the hallway.

Gio finally concluded that this man was the one buying Tybalt's paintings. With the two men discussing payment and business, Gio backed into his room and quietly closed the door, locking it behind him. After seeing such a creepy man standing just outside his door, he didn't feel safe going to sleep without a little reinforcement.

As he slipped back into bed, a thought struck his mind.

_He looks familiar..._

_

* * *

_

Like always, reviews are very much appreciated. :)_  
_


	5. Tybalt

And so begins the drama.

* * *

That damn annoying alarm went off once again, and the young man in the bedroom could only slam down a hand on it. Yet another day in "paradise," he supposed.

Then, the former night rushed back to him. The accidental bump which awoke him, the light shining in from the hallway, the creepy stranger who was buying Tybalt's paintings...whatever those paintings may have been. He shuddered as he awoke. Though his room was warm, the thought of the stranger seemed to bring a chill to the whole apartment.

Gio attempted to shake off the chill, rubbing his eyes and stepping onto his floor gently. He grabbed his suit from the closet once more and lay it onto his bed, preparing for the day. Yet again, he opened the door and walked to his bathroom.

An interesting sight met his eyes. Tybalt was in the kitchen cooking, but he barely glanced up when he saw his roommate walk into the common room. Befuddled, Gio walked into his bathroom and closed the door. He didn't feel an angry glare from behind it this time.

His shower was curt, and he exited the bathroom finding that his mirror hadn't even fogged up. He glanced over at Tybalt, who was still cooking, but this time he hadn't prepared Gio anything like he had been doing for the past couple of weeks. Gio went to the pantry and began to prepare his own meal for the day. Tybalt said nothing.

Suit covering him, Giovanni exited the apartment having not said a word to his roommate. He trudged through the halls and stairs to resume his boring life. He was getting so tired of this...

When he got back from work, he found an interesting sight. He walked towards his doors as usual, but then saw that both doors were open. What made it interesting today was the fact that he could see neither his roommate nor his friend Griselda...he couldn't hear them either.

"Grisey?" he asked into Griselda's apartment. No response. What was going on?

"Tybalt?" he called into his own apartment. A giggle met his ears – it was Griselda. A pit formed in his stomach. No, no, it wasn't happening.

"Grisey!" he called out to her.

"In here!" she responded as he walked into his own apartment. He turned to his right, realizing that her voice had come from Tybalt's room.

_Oh no...please no..._

He walked up to the door and knocked on it. There was a brief shuffling and Griselda answered the door, face still tinged a bit pink. She was fully-clothed. Thank God. Still, he knew what he was about to hear.

"Hey Gio! Guess what? I've got great news!" she told him with a wide smile. Gio attempted his best at a sickened grin back at her.

"What's that?" he asked with false curiosity, full-well knowing the answer.

"Tybalt and I have decided to date!"

For a moment, he was simply stunned into stupidity. He couldn't fathom it, couldn't deal with it, couldn't say a word in response. He just stared at Griselda, who was grinning like an idiot and Tybalt, with his hair in a ponytail, who was sitting on the edge of his bed behind her, smirking at Gio like he had just won some sort of game. His hands were leaned back and his head was tilted slightly to the left. He couldn't believe it – his best friend in the entire city was now dating the one person he didn't want her to...the one person he had known in this city before he had come here. He wanted to shout and tell her what a horrible person this man was, wanted to smack Tybalt for even trying to get with his new best friend, wanted to do _something_ to make this stop happening...

"...That's...nice," Gio finally sputtered. Griselda seemed pleased enough, and leaned in to give him a hug.

"Oh Gio! Thanks so much! Your approval means a lot to me!"

She released him and smiled once more.

"I know this is really unexpected but it's kind of been building up whenever we would go out on the town and now we finally decided to give it a shot!" she concluded. Gio could only shake his head briefly and mutter a congratulations of sorts.

"We're actually about to go on a date now, did you want to come with us?" That was almost a smack in the face, and Tybalt knew it.

"No thanks, I'm gonna go...get some extra paperwork done, I have some stuff I need to finish up on my computer anyway," he lied, gritting his teeth.

"Awwwww, well okay then, if you insist. We'll leave in about half an hour!"

"Cool. Have a good dinner you two!"

Gio turned instantly and walked to his room. It took every ounce of his energy not to slam the door behind him. His hands were shaking and he could only clench his fists to prevent himself from screaming. Again, someone so dear to him had been wrenched away. He could only stand there and dig his short fingernails into his palms for a few minutes.

As he walked towards his closet, he finally let go of his palms and saw blood in his hands. He had clenched so hard he drew blood. He simply looked at them for a moment, not much feeling the pain, and then opened his closet, blood swiping across his white slide-open doors. All the smiley faces there seemed to mock him. Rage overcoming him, he grabbed at a shirt and flung it across his room. It landed a couple feet away from him in a very unsatisfying manner, due to aerodynamics. He grabbed another one and crumpled it up, throwing it across the room in a similar manner. It struck the wall with a very satisfying _thud_. Without thinking much, he grabbed the rest of his smiley-face shirts and did the exact same thing with them, wadding each one up and hurling it at his wall. They all hit with the same satisfying _thud_ and he didn't care that each one got dangerously closer to his window, threatening to break it and fall through. Miraculously, none of them did, and they eventually formed a wrinkly pile next to his wall. He was surprised that throwing around 20 or so shirts hadn't winded him in the least. Instead, the young man wanted to throw more things. He glanced around, looking at his old useless TV sitting in the closet with a tilted head, and finally realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

_What the fuck am I thinking?_

Putting his head in his hands, Giovanni sat onto his bed facing all his bloody shirts. He had thrown every single one of his 'casual' shirts at the wall with his bleeding palms, and he couldn't feel an ounce of his physical pain in them still. Null, he decided to soak the shirts anyway; no use in ruining shirts which still (amazingly enough) fit him perfectly.

Gio gathered the shirts and examined the wall briefly. He was still fortunate enough that no blood had made contact with the wall. Perhaps it was the way he wadded up each shirt? It didn't matter. A trip to the bathroom was the only thing needed. As he walked outside, he noticed Tybalt and Griselda had already left the apartment. Hopefully they hadn't heard him throwing his wadded up shirts against the wall.

He ran the cold water in his tub and began tossing each shirt in, pushing them down below the surface. For an instant, he imagined the shirts were Tybalt, and began to push the shirts hard against the bottom of the tub. Quickly, he realized again what he was doing, and drew back his hands, frightened of his own desires. He had never wanted to kill someone.

He shook his head, and grabbed the last shirt that needed to be thrown in. Before he tossed it into the tub, however, he stopped and looked at it. It was the shirt Harley had borrowed the day when Gio developed his crush on him. Dark blue was the base color, with green swirls on the torso and red flames on the sleeves. It was his favorite shirt for that one particular reason – because it had brought him closer to Harley.

A desire to contact Harley suddenly swept him up. He checked his palms for blood, but the cold water had stifled the flow.

_I wonder what Harley's doing in LA right now..._ he thought to himself as he dried his hands to prevent water getting on his phone.

"I've... I've gotta call him," Gio muttered to himself out loud. He took his cell phone out of his pocket and began to dial the number which would never leave his mind. This was it – the moment of truth. _Now or never, Gio._

One ring. Damn.

Another ring. Torture!

Yet another ring. Gio bit his lip in anticipation and a tinge of fear. _Pick up, Harley, pick up..._

And then...

"Hey dude or dudette, you've reached Harley and Mik's place," sang Harley's musical voice, "leave a message at the beep. Punk rock forever!" The beep sounded, and Gio let out a sigh.

He'd been missing that voice. That wonderful voice which got him through the good and bad times in life. That voice that he'd heard every day since he was friends with that crazy Buffy lover. That voice... it made his life worthwhile. He smiled to himself for a second, the first smile he'd done in a long time without the aid of Griselda. Closing his bedroom eyes and reminiscing, he hastily remembered that he still had to leave a message.

"Harley, it's Skids, I-"

The second beep sounded and his message was over. Gio stood stunned, amazed at himself for two reasons. One - he had let himself day dream so long that he actually ran out of time for leaving a message. Two - he called himself Skids again. He'd not called himself that since Tybalt ripped up Harley's phone number.

But with nothing real accomplished, Gio backed against his bathroom wall and clutched his phone. He sighed, feeling much less upset than before, and glanced into his bathtub. The water was tinged red, so he pulled out a dripping shirt to examine if all the blood had left it. It hadn't. He tossed it back in and let them sit for a while longer while he backed against the bathroom wall once more and slid down, sitting on the floor, waiting for a return call.

It didn't come. Two weeks later, he still hadn't heard back from Harley. He began to give up hope, trudging through every monotonous day, instantly checking his phone once he was done with work to see if he had gotten a call from his beloved...but he never saw one. A few times there were texts from Griselda or Cyanide, but they were limited and not nearly as important. He'd always respond to texts from Griselda, but rarely to Cyanide's. Cyanide's were usually about Gio giving him a call back, but the young man rarely wanted to do so.

The fact that he'd been able to leave a message on Harley's phone was enough of a step. It might as well have been climbing Mount Kilimanjaro – he felt no need to take any further steps...for now.

As for the relationships he had there in New York, things had changed. He never spoke to Tybalt unless it was about utilities or rent or something financial, and he was genuinely cordial with Griselda, but didn't spend time at her place anymore. He always came up with some excuse, like needing to balance his checkbook or finishing up his paperwork from his job or going grocery shopping. He never told her the real reason he didn't want to hang out with her – which was that anything he said about Tybalt would have horrid consequences. The two were in a relationship, and he knew that anything he said to her would be relayed to Tybalt, whether or not her intentions were good (he would be surprised if they weren't).

A month after he'd made the call to Harley, he finally relented to Griselda's persistent requests to hang out and went over to her place to watch the final season of Buffy. He would have done so at his own place, but Tybalt's ever-present gaze discouraged him all the more. Plus, the only working TV they had was in the front room.

At around 6 o'clock, Griselda asked him to head over, so he quickly got on his casual clothes and began to walk to her place. Thankfully, washing them all at once and letting them hang-dry had allowed them to become slightly larger, giving him even more room for his ever-growing biceps – his work-out regimen had not changed since he called Harley, and he was growing more muscular each day.

"Going somewhere?" sounded a wretched voice. He turned to his left to face his roommate, to whom he could only give a cold glare.

"Yeah, I'm going over to Grisey's. Got a problem with it?" Gio asked, attempting to intimidate Tybalt. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

"Don't try anything fishy," Tybalt responded, turning back to his door and closing it.

_Wouldn't dream of it_, Gio thought to himself. He walked out of the door, feeling that Tybalt would follow him.

He knocked on Griselda's door and she answered within a few seconds, smiling and giddy at his visit.

"It's about damn time!" she practically shouted at him, grinning from ear to ear. He awkwardly smiled back, hoping she wouldn't ask right away what had taken him so long to hang out with her. She did.

"How are things? It's been too long!" she stated, ever-gleeful. He hesitated until she closed the door, then spoke in a low voice.

"Sorry, Grisey, I've just been busy lately," he told her with a slightly desperate look in his eyes. She tilted her head.

"No really, what's up? You weren't busy before...and you've been balancing your checkbook an awful lot lately," she recounted to him in a much more serious tone. She was smarter than that, and Gio knew it, but he was glad she never particularly showed it around Tybalt. For some reason, though her appearance shouldn't have changed in the past month, she now looked wiser, as though she knew something he did not. When he glanced at the ground and didn't answer for a few moments, Griselda spoke up again.

"Giovanni, tell me what's going on. You've been acting funny ever since I started dating Tybalt." Even coming from her mouth, the name sounded inherently evil.

"Alright Grisey, but first turn on Buffy-" he began, but Griselda cut him off.

"No. You're going to tell me what's up NOW." She had never been this insistent before. Gio was confused at her insistence, but then realized exactly why she had done this once the door closed.

"Grisey, Buffy first. It'll help me relax a bit. Trust me, I'll tell you everything once it starts up," he told her, winking. She hesitated for a second, still grimacing. Gio motioned his head towards the door, and looked down at the light shining beneath. Griselda did the same, and her eyes widened as she saw the ever-shining light obscured by two dark spots, which were unmistakably feet in front of her door. Both of them knew who the feet belonged to. She began to walk forward to answer it but Gio put up a hand, shaking his head. She then mouthed the same 'oh' motion as when he first met her, and turned to the TV.

"Yeah, sorry about that, let's turn on the TV first!" Gio could've sworn he heard a four-letter word when she said that. Tybalt was getting sloppy, not even hiding his feet from the obvious view.

The two settled on the neon-green couch and began to talk about other things as Griselda's DVD player started up, laughing like nothing was wrong. Both kept checking the door and didn't see the dark spots move, which meant that he was still standing in front of the door, no doubt listening to them to see what Gio was trying to say.

After what seemed like an eternity, the intro for Buffy finally started playing. Griselda pumped up the volume and Gio instantly began talking, very close to her ears so only she could hear.

"Grisey, I'm worried about you. You see what kind of person Tybalt is – he spies on others! He and I do have a history, yes, but it was a one-time deal and if I could take it back, I would in a heart beat. He's a horrible person and I seriously recommend you get out of this while you can," he finished quickly.

"I didn't know he would resort to spying on me! What a creep! He's always treated me so nicely and he's always been so sweet around me-"

"Including how he couldn't stand you when he first met you? Don't you think it's a little suspicious that he would do something like that and then, after a couple months, decide to date you? I'm not trying to hurt you, Griselda, I'm trying to help! He's up to something and I know it!"

The intro had finished, and now the episode began, so the two kept up the volume and talked sparsely when the characters were talking or when music was playing. Thankfully, this episode had an action-beginning, so they were able to continue for a while.

"I trust you, Gio, but he's really been a good person to me. Maybe this is just one of his odd perks that I'll have to deal with. It's not like I've been cheating on him or anything."

"I know that, and I trust you, too, but you have to believe me – there's something very wrong with Tybalt, and I don't want to see you getting hurt by this monster."

"Monster? I dunno about that-"

"I'm serious, Griselda. He's a horrible human being. Please, please get out while you can."

"As much as I'd like to leave, I think it would be more advantageous to stay. I do have a bit of sway over the apartment, since I've been here for a few years. I'm well-known very much liked, and with my say-so, I could get someone kicked out ASAP." Gio smiled at this.

"That's great! How come you never mentioned it before?"

"You never asked," she told him slyly with a wink. Finally – something was going his way!

"You should get him kicked out right away."

"I dunno, Gio. The fact that I'm in a relationship with him right now speaks worlds – it's a huge step since my ex. I haven't been with anyone since him, you know?"

"But Griselda...what if he's just like your ex?"

Before she could respond, the action scene in Buffy had ended and there was a knock at her door. She glanced sideways at him, then paused the DVD and then got up to answer it. Both of them knew who it was. She swung open the door and met a smirking Tybalt.

"Hey honey, just thought I'd come over and hang out with you and Gio! It's been such a long time since we've had the opportunity to all chill together," he told her with a creepy smile. Gio bit his lip to prevent from shouting.

"But sweetie, I've only just started hanging out with Gio – and the two of us spend so much time together anyway! I'm sure you can go a couple hours without being at my side, right?" Damn, she was good.

"Oh you're right... I'd just so like all of us to get along like we used to!" And he was right on-par with her.

"Babe, you know that we spend a whole lot of time together as it is, and Gio and I need our time together, too. Sometimes it just needs to be two of us instead of three." Griselda's words had finally worked.

"Alright, if you say so," Tybalt said through slightly gritted teeth.

"Of course," Grisey responded, giving him a kiss on the cheek, "and make sure you get that painting of yours done! I still have yet to see a single one of those things!"

Griselda closed the door and waited to hear the door across the hall close. When it finally did, she closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief. Both of them looked at the light shining beneath the door to confirm that Tybalt was gone, and Griselda checked the peephole just in-case.

"Wow. That was the fakest conversation I've ever heard – no offense, you were awesome, but wow." Gio started up. Griselda walked back to the neon-green couch and resumed the DVD (yet again, just in case).

"Tell me about it. Even _I_ could tell he was faking, and I pretty much know the guy inside and out."

"Not if you're dating him you don't," Gio said unabashedly. Griselda glanced over at him and grimaced slightly.

"Look, obviously he's not the best choice, but for now I think this is the way things should be," she told him.

"No, Griselda, it's not. You'll find someone way better who doesn't lie to your face like that-"

"Fat chance – I doubt I can find anyone better than him. I mean c'mon, I'm not much of a catch."

"Not true. Any guy could only be so lucky," Gio told her with honesty in his eyes. She paused, then turned to face him and smiled a genuine smile.

"Thanks, hon. I always knew you were a sweetheart," she told him as she lifted a hand and stroked the side of his face. He smiled back. They sat there for a little while, enjoying the comfort of another friend. Then, after what seemed like forever, Gio spoke up.

"So really...stop dating Tybalt. I'm serious. Move in with me, we can kick him out and never have to put up with him again." For once, it seemed like things were all working out. Giovanni could move in with his new best friend, eventually find another love interest, and help her recover from the stitches of the past.

"Well hon, I'll see what I can do. Ending a relationship so quickly is never easy, even if all signs point to 'no.'" She had a point – it never was easy to break up with someone, even if it seemed like there was no reason to be with that person.

"I just hope it happens soon," Gio prayed out loud. Griselda nodded, then suddenly glanced around.

"Wait, what time is it? I have work at nine!" She was beginning to get frantic.

"Calm down, Grisey, it's only 8:15. You've got some time."

"Yeah, enough time to start getting ready. I'm sorry, Gio, I didn't know the time had passed so quickly. I'll see you tomorrow for sure, alright?" He smiled back.

"Absolutely."

They hugged each other goodbye and he left the apartment. Tybalt was in his room painting something else, his classical music very loud and sounds of frustration were clearly audible even at the front door. Gio closed the door as quietly as he could manage and then tip-toed quickly to his room. He got undressed and logged onto his computer, checking a few things before he decided to call it an early night. He smiled to himself in the dim light, knowing that he had progressed and that things were on their way to improving. Then, he hastily remembered to lock his bedroom door...just in case. He then shut his eyes and, for the first time in two months, dreamt pleasant dreams.

The next morning came too quickly, and the young Italian man was awoken by his very annoying (yet very efficient) alarm clock once again. Today was a Saturday, and though it was the beginning of November, the city was still alarmingly warm for the fall. Gio yawned and stretched himself out, remembering yesterday with a smile. Finally – everything was about to work out. He glanced at his phone, which was always on vibrate.

One missed call. He checked closer and saw the number wasn't in his phone book, but it didn't matter. He recognized it right away.

Harley.

His breath became shallow, even so early in the morning. He began to clutch his phone a bit tighter, reminding himself to breathe over and over again. Then, the impossible happened – the phone began to ring. While it was still in his hand.

It was Harley. Gio shook his head briefly to make sure he wasn't hallucinating or dreaming. To be cliché, he even pinched his arm. Yup, he was awake. He quickly answered it. Silence on the other end. He'd forgotten to say 'hello.'

"H...Hello?" he finally managed to breathe out.

"Skids! Thank God you answered!" Gio's heart skipped. It was his angel. His angel was talking to him.

"H...Harley, wow, it's been too long," he began, but Harley was frantic, as he could soon tell.

"Skids, I need you to come to LA. Now." This was very much unexpected.

"What? LA? So soon? My lease isn't up yet-" he started, but was cut off again.

"I know, I know, but I really need my best friend right about now. Please Skids. I need you to come here. It can be just a vacation or something. I need my best friend right now." Harley's voice sounded absurdly destitute.

"Harley. Tell me what's going on. Please." Despite finally speaking to his angel for the first time in over two months, Gio managed to get his emotions under control when Harley was upset.

"I can't tell you over the phone, Skids, I just... I need you to come here. I'll pay for your plane ticket." That was a nice promise. Gio didn't even care that Harley called him by his old nickname, he was just glad to hear from him.

"When do you want me to leave?"

"As soon as you can. Please, just get here. Give me a call when you arrive." Harley sounded like he was on the verge of tears. What the hell happened?

"But Harls, at least tell me-"

"See you when you get here." Harley had hung up the phone. Since he'd not given Gio any credit card information or the like, he assumed Harley would pay him upon arrival or something similar. He grabbed his clothes and began to pack his suitcase hurriedly. Even if things here were getting better, he had to make sure Harley was okay – and he sure as hell didn't sound like he was.

Gio finally finished packing the large suitcase and brought along a small carry-on for the trip to keep himself entertained and his otherwise worrisome mind occupied. He called his workplace and told them a family emergency had come up – they seemed to accept it as a good reason for his following absence, which he told them would last around a week.

He checked to make sure he had everything, then double-checked and counted what spare cash he had. Enough to last him if he had to pay for everything on his way there, ticket included. He quickly logged onto his computer and booked a flight online, reserving it but paying for it upon arrival at the airport. He'd also been managing to save up a small amount in his saving's account, working overtime to keep his mind off Tybalt and Griselda's relationship. It had accumulated pretty quickly.

Anticipation and excitement embraced him, while anxiousness and a sliver of fear nipped at his heels. He was going to see Harley! But what was wrong with him? But he was going to visit him for a whole week! But what if it was really serious and bad? He shook off his thoughts once again and unlocked his door, walking out with his suitcase in hand. He only looked straight ahead at the doorway, ready to go tell Griselda of his new trip.

"Hold it." a voice commanded of him. He turned to see the half-lit silhouette of his roommate, who was wearing a green shirt with his hair in a ponytail, in the kitchen. Oddly enough, he wasn't cooking anything, just standing in front of their island stove. The windows were closed and only a light near the front was on, obscuring half of the man in darkness somehow.

"And where are you going?" the man asked him, head tilted in an eerie way.

"None of your business. I'll only be gone a week anyway."

"Oh really? What would you say if I were to tell you that you wouldn't be gone just a week, but forever?" The last word lingered and echoed, making Gio narrow his dark eyes.

"What are you talking about, Tybalt?" he spat at his once-friend. Tybalt did not smile in return, but instead tilted his head the other way.

"I think you'll find yourself out-of-a-house very soon, my friend."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Think about it. Guess who I asked to move in with me this morning?"

His heart sank. _No, he didn't._

"Yup, and while you were sleeping. I convinced her that if we woke you up that you would just be grumpy with the news, and now she's out shopping for some new furnishings to make the place more...homey."

Gio stared back in disbelief.

"You're kidding, right? You can't kick me out of here! I _found_ this apartment and I'm on the lease!"

"True, true...but if I tell little 'ol Griselda, who has some sway, about how you helped her just so you could get closer to her and do the same thing that her ex did-"

"You asshole! I would _never_ hurt her like that!" Gio was mortified at the concept that someone who he'd thought was his friend had turned on him so vehemently.

"Well who's she going to believe? Her new friend? Or her new _boyfriend_?" For the umpteenth time, Gio had lost another argument. He could only gawk and grope for words.

"I can't believe you...all of a sudden, you just stab me in the back and ask her to move in with you instead of moving in with her?"

"All of a sudden? To the contraire, my boy, I knew something was going to happen." Tybalt said with his narrow-eyed smile.

"What are you talking about?" Gio retorted, still glaring intensely at his ex-friend. His 'friend' circled around the stove and began to walk closer to him while speaking.

"You asked me to 'think' about moving to New York...so I went to a psychic and asked for her opinion. She told me it was a wonderful idea and that I would meet someone who would change my life. Sure, at first I was a bit hesitant – only stupid straight people would want to settle down – but then I realized that this person might be something a bit more special and I might be able to use him or her to my advantage. As for moving in to her apartment, no no no, that place is hideously decorated and ours is bigger."

"So you... you knew you were going to date Griselda?" Giovanni asked in awe.

"From the very beginning. I had you fooled into thinking I didn't like her so you wouldn't suspect anything and _now_," he said, his eyes lighting up at the last word, "I've sprung the trap upon you and the cornered mouse has nowhere to go except his mouse hole – or that wretched town you called 'home,' I suppose."

Gio felt like he'd been stabbed in the heart. This whole time, it was a trick. Everything Tybalt had done 'for' him since they moved into the apartment had been only to his own advantage. All he could do was give Tybalt that same desperate look of _why._

"Why do you do this to people who care about you, Tybalt?" Gio was amazed that he could find such perfect words for the situation.

"Care about me? Don't even try that. Do you think I don't pick up on your subtle nuances? I can tell exactly what you're thinking and I know what you're saying about me behind my back – I know that you were only putting up with me because I was the only one who would move in with you. And so I decided to have a little payback and now I've got everything I want." He savored the last three words like they were the last three bites of some bloody delicacy that would only satiate one with an appetite for misery. Gio was almost lost for words.

"Whatever. At least you'll never get one thing – Harley. He wants me to go to LA," Gio stated. In a bit more than an instant, Tybalt's facial expression and mood imploded. His 'innocent' face emerged and he acted as though he'd just casually crossed Gio in the street.

"Oh... Harley? Well, can I give you my phone number so he can call me?" His expression was oddly simple, with no menace surrounding it anymore.

"Not a chance," Gio finished, turning around to pack the rest of his belongings in his room. He had only taken a few steps before Tybalt's hand grabbed his shoulder (a bit harder than casually), to which he wheeled around and literally snarled. Considering Giovanni had been working out a lot more recently, it would be unwise for anyone shorter or skinnier than him to try and push him – literally or figuratively. The redhead had done both. Tybalt was slightly taller than Giovanni, but far more slender and much, much weaker. In a bout of rage, Gio's feelings finally reared their true form.

"**TRY IT! I FUCKING DARE YOU!**" he shouted at the frightened redhead who curled back, putting his hands across his chest in protection. Tauntingly, Gio put a foot forward and shifted his whole body quickly to throw off Tybalt. The redhead reeled back and fell onto the floor, attempting to look helpless and not at fault for what was happening.

"... That's what I thought," Giovanni said as he turned around once again. He walked to his bedroom and slammed the door behind him.

He would have thrown his TV out the window, but scaring Tybalt had made him feel worlds better, and now he simply picked up his phone. He knew what had to be done. He called the same moving company that had brought his belongings to this location. He was relieved (and very fortunate) when a familiar voice picked up.

"Mark?"

"Yes?"

"This is Giovanni DiAngelo. I recently moved to New York with your services and there was a heavy delay for the arrival of my belongings."

"Hm...yes, I do remember that. It was a couple of months ago. I apologize once again, and if there's anything we can do-"

"You can. I'm moving again. Today."

"Oh really? That's sudden, but considering your priority, I think we'll be able to make a spot for you. Where are you moving to?"

"Los Angeles."

* * *

Hopefully this will also get some reviews. Hopefully.


	6. Harley

Aptly named. It was tempting to combine this chapter with the last one, but I think I'll manage to stretch it out.

* * *

The young Italian-American man glanced out the window, seeing only specks of land, cities and lakes beneath him. His eyes darted up, and he narrowed his eyes to prevent any damage from the bright clouds. Ahead, he only saw white nimbuses, and he let a relaxed smile meet his lips. He was flying first-class (he treated himself, knowing it was paid for).

Leaving New York had been awkward, the details still floating around in the back of his head. He remembered how Tybalt had tried shouting something as soon as he got all of his belongings out (and the movers were out of earshot), and he remembered how he had somehow managed to calmly put down the apartment key onto the end table sitting by the front door. He had merely looked at his old roommate, who had some expression reminiscent of anger and desperation, and all Gio could do was shake his head with a pitiful expression.

"I really thought you'd changed, Tybalt." The fresh look of sorrow engraved on Tybalt's face almost made him feel sorry for his old friend.

Then, he closed the door for the last time.

Breaking his lease wasn't a big deal – he had a great credit standing. As for quitting his new job just to move in with his old friend, well, that was a bit different. He would have to give them a call and let them know about the situation, and that would almost surely hurt his standing for chances at work. But cell phones weren't allowed to be used while in-flight so he couldn't call his workplace just yet.

As for Griselda...he only hoped that things would get better for her in time. He had a hunch that she would know exactly what Tybalt was up to, but considering Harley needed him there as a friend and how sick Giovanni was of putting up with Tybalt, he decided the best thing to do was to simply leave it all. Griselda would find her own way – he knew it would be tough, but letting her do things by herself would also help her become a stronger person, which was exactly what she needed to do at this point.

He had only sent her one text when he was about to board the plane – it read "Don't forget me, and don't believe him." He had yet to get a reply, but he'd only sent the text a couple of hours ago and his phone was turned off, so he wasn't expecting anything yet.

The flight back from New York was long and uneventful, but he'd had enough drama for now so he was basking in the lazy feeling of it all. He'd been working hard over the past two months: on his emotions, his finances and his body. It all showed, as he kept receiving winks from the passing stewardesses, and he began to enjoy being even more attractive than he used to be.

He remembered the last time he felt this relaxed...when he was in the hot tub at Tybalt's apartment back when Tybalt lived with Apollo. Well, relaxed until he had to 'think.' He had gotten drunk on whiskey and attempted to 'think things out,' but he never told Tybalt the real reason he'd insisted on a private room. Once the door was closed and he made sure that no one was around, he cried alone. He hadn't cried since he was a baby and to let it all out finally helped a lot with his pent-up rage and frustration and anger and sorrow. It was such a relief to finally be able to get rid of his emotional build-up...but the feelings remained. They never changed. Not even for a second.

This, of course, made the trip to LA all the more awkward. What was he going to do upon arrival? He hadn't heard anything of Mik, so he assumed that he was still with Harley. He cursed under his breath, then decided to take a nap before he arrived. He still had a couple more hours.

He dreamt of seeing Harley on the beach during midday, seeing him run through the waves in his short shorts and a white tank-top on. He splashed around in the water, smiling and laughing the whole time. Gio was watching in a third-person view, seeing his old non-muscular self (dressed in a black tank top and blue swim trunks) run up and playfully push Harley into the water. The two began to laugh, and then ran over to make sandcastles. Gio hadn't seen himself smile like that in months, and he hadn't seen Harley's beautiful smile in far too long. Gio held onto Harley, lifting him up above and then tossed him back into the ocean, all the while smiling and laughing like idiots. It was like a dream come true. Then, the two lined themselves up together, Harley on his back, his feet dampened by the ocean tide, and Giovanni over him on his hands and knees. Their fingers were interlocked. The two smiled at each other once again, and Gio slowly leaned in as Harley craned his neck upwards.

_Sir?_

The dream froze. Their lips never met.

_Sir? Wake up, sir._

It suddenly became painfully obvious that Gio was being awoken from his dream. He snapped himself out of it and pulled himself up from what had become a somewhat deep sleep. He groggily opened his eyes and looked up at a blurry stewardess with the best expression he could muster in such a state. Blonde hair and brown eyes, she looked down at him crookedly and smiled a very patient smile. Giovanni wearily grabbed his carry-on and rose slowly, lining up to get out – he was one of the first since he was in first-class seating.

Once he got off the plane, he headed on over to his baggage claim and sat down on a bench close to it, amidst loud passerbys – many of them speaking a language besides English. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and hit the power button, letting it load up. He should have given Harley a call, but he was too weary. He just wanted to rest now...

His phone began to ring. He glanced down at it and after a few seconds, it registered.

It was Griselda.

_Well, best see how she's doing._

"Gio speaking." Wow, that was awfully business-like of him.

"Gio! Finally! I've been trying to reach you forever!" She sounded distraught.

"Hey Grisey, what's up?" Her voice lowered and she spoke in almost a whisper.

"I'm not sure if Tybalt's listening to me or not, but I want to know what's going on. Where are you? What happened? Tybalt said something about you not wanting to put up with me anymore so you moved out. Is that true?"

"You know it's not."

"Yeah but I figured I'd check anyway. Your room's empty and nothing that belongs to you is here anymore, so I know you moved out. Where are you right now? I hear a bunch of people moving around in the background." He hesitated to tell her, but after biting his lip for a few seconds, he relented.

"Los Angeles."

For a moment, he only heard silence. He half-expected her to cheer him on, half-expected her to pop out of the receiver and and smack him.

"Gio...are you going to live with Harley now?"

"Yeah. He called me today, very distraught and wanting me to come over. I was sick of dealing with Tybalt and sick of my job, so I left. The moving company that moved me up to New York owed me a little favor so I called them and cashed in on it."

"And you just left me? You just left me with Tybalt?" Gio's eyes narrowed, and his honesty sprang out.

"You wouldn't leave him at my advice, so I decided to let you figure things out on your own. I can't fight your battles for you, Griselda, and even though we're good friends – no, great friends – you still didn't trust me enough to leave him. So I left you to solve things by yourself; it's time for you to learn how to fight anyway." His words were harsh, but very concise. She paused, and then let out a small sigh.

"You're right, hon. Just as right as my therapist. As much as I didn't want to hear it, everything you just said is true. I've still got a few things to work out before I can really move on. Work out...hmmmm, that reminds me of something. Thanks, Giovanni, I think you just gave me exactly what I needed." Though he didn't know what it was, he said an awkward 'you're welcome?' anyway.

"I'll let you know when that's all done, hon. I'll text you, but don't text me back. Tybalt might be going through my messages. Only call, and never leave a voicemail if I don't answer. Codeword for if Tybalt's around is 'rockin'.'" He smiled at her dedication to music.

"Best of luck, Grisey." he finished with a genuine smile.

"You too, Gio." She hung up the phone and Gio spotted his suitcase on the belt. As he weaved through hordes of people to obtain it, he flipped open his phone and glanced at his 'recent calls' list to find the ten digits he would never forget. He also noticed Griselda had called him four times prior to their conversation. He clicked 'call' in the options and brought the receiver to his ear.

"Hello?" His angel spoke to him once more, in a sad tone, but he was too tired to be taken aback by it.

"Harley, I'm in the LA airport. Where do I go now?"

About half an hour later, Gio had boarded a taxi and was on his way to Harley's address, which was all the information he needed to provide the Indian driver. Harley had sounded incredibly happy (considering his mood) when he heard that Gio was in LA, and very excited to see his best friend once again. In the taxi, Gio debated calling Cyanide and decided against it. Instead, he texted him, saying that he was in LA, and that he would call later. A reply text never came.

The taxi finally arrived at the address during the early evening, after what seemed like an eternity of twists and turns. Gio reached into his wallet and paid the kind man who drove him there, and after they'd lugged all his suitcases out of the car, he waved him goodbye. Though the two had said nothing to each other besides Harley's address (Gio had too much on his mind to talk), Gio still considered him to be a nice person...as he considered most everyone he met. Most.

The taxi drove off, and Gio glanced at the beachside mansion and gawked. Even in the waning light, he was awestruck and felt less fatigued than before.

_Wow. I can see why Harley chose to leave us. This place is incredible!_

It looked like a smaller version of a movie star's house. Green grass covered most of the area surrounding the house, with a few decorative rocks in place. The long driveway (without gates installed, for some reason) led up to an island parking area, which provided a long curvy stairway to the steps, railings included. The mansion itself was covered in large glass windows and Gio could see on one side a sort of balcony that was probably bigger than his New York apartment. As he walked up the stairs, he glanced at all the plants in the yard. There were many white roses, and a few daffodils and lilies. All were blooming and in perfect health.

_This place must have cost a fortune, and to maintain it... I don't even want to know,_ Gio thought to himself. He lugged all of his heavy suitcases up and arrived at the front door. It was tall with a wooden frame and glass covered most of it. Very artistic...perhaps even designed by Mik. Still, Gio rang the doorbell. Lord knows where Harley could be in this mansion and he didn't want to take the risk of knocking in case Harley didn't hear him.

After a few moments, he heard some shuffling beyond the door. His heart began to race, and he gripped his luggage a bit tighter. He wondered if he looked alright, if he looked good enough for Harley, if he could even stay awake long enough to help Harley through whatever was bothering him.

The door swung open, and there stood his angel. Petite, dressed in a short white robe, and...faded. Harley looked exhausted, like he hadn't slept in days. He looked like something was haunting him. He had black bags beneath his eyes, a puffy look to his eyes and eyelids (he'd been crying) and his hands were shaking. When he looked into Gio's eyes, Gio was lost for words...until suddenly, Harley jumped forward and hugged him tightly. Gio didn't need to remind himself to let go of his luggage and hug his friend back.

"I'm so glad you came," was all Harley could whimper out. His head rested softly against Giovanni's chest, and his whole body made contact with the young man's. Gio hugged him in return and began to gently stroke his soft blonde hair.

_Anything for you, my angel._

The two stood there in the dwindling twilight, clutching each other tightly, knowing that things were going to get better to some degree... but not knowing each other's problems.

Several minutes later, though Gio didn't want him to, Harley let go and picked up a couple of small suitcases to take inside, wiping his eyes on his robe. Gio walked into the mansion and wasn't surprised to see that it was just as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside. Cherry floors with no visible scratches, a deep golden-yellow color on the walls, and a winding staircase was visible off to his left. He glanced forward and saw a doorless opening which led to the family/living room, which was much, much larger than his previous one. Even through the somewhat narrow doorway, he managed to see a short rectangular mahogany coffee table in front of a large black leather couch and a few overstuffed brown leather recliners which looked incredibly comfortable. However, Harley was headed past the staircase, so he followed. He passed a china hutch in the dining room, as well as a long table for formal parties (he supposed) and went down a narrow hallway. Harley made a left into the room at the end of the hall and Gio followed obedienty. When he finally reached the room, he stumbled into a room that looked oddly like his old one – not in New York, but at his house before he'd moved into the dorms. It was quaint and colorful, with shiney decorations adorning the walls and a miniature bookshelf filled with a few coloring books next to a new set of crayons. He glanced down at Harley, who'd just placed the suitcases next to the bed, which was twin-sized.

"You...made a room for me?" Harley could only bite his lip and nod, tears welling up, while he once again embraced his old friend.

_And here I thought he was just up and leaving his friends...but he never forgot us._ Tears threatened Gio's eyes but he blinked them away. Not now, not yet.

"Harley...thank you. This is more than I could ever ask for." Gio tightened his embrace.

"You're more than I could ask for." Gio paused, amazed that he was hearing such words from Harley.

"W-What?"

"I called Cyanide too, but he's hellbent on staying in that city and refused to come out here. He's with Ronnie now, did you know that?"

_Oh, he means as a friend._

"Yeah, we've had some contact, but not much. Harley, tell me what's going on," Gio finished, reluctantly letting go of his angel. Harley wiped his eyes once more and sat down on the bed. Gio sat next to him, one arm around him.

"It's...it's Mik." Gio sucked in a breath, not sure how to react.

"Tell me everything, Harley." Gio felt the familiarity of the situation from a couple of months earlier.

"Well, do you remember how Mikhail thought he was King of the Forest?" For a moment, Gio could only give Harley a 'wtf' look, and Harley's response was a shake of the head.

"No, of course you don't, you weren't there. He was telling the animals what to do and stuff like that, and the only reason it didn't ge bad was because we left the cabin. Well, when we got here, he did something similar with all the sea critters. He became King of the Seashore." Gio could only continue his bewildered look with amazement, curiosity, and the temptation to laugh. Harley let out the same 'laugh' Griselda had when she had broken down in front of Gio.

"It's kinda funny, really, I thought it was cute at first. But we left the cabin in the woods before the situation got out of hand, which it began to," he said, "and then when he came here, I thought it would just be innocent and stupid and a little game."

He paused, breathing in and out a few times, Gio's eyes never leaving his.

"But it wasn't! He became obsessed with it, began to not come home at night, and sometimes when he did he would smell like the ocean and he would be dripping wet. I kept telling him to stop getting carried away with it, but he didn't and he began to become less like himself, less human, more animal."

Gio could hardly believe his ears – the concept of it was almost hilarious but also frightening. Had Mik really become so obsessed with this whole idea that he became 'less human?' Harley began to resume the story.

"And so, I would keep telling him to stop, and he would tell me he would stop, but then he didn't. He'd keep going outside. Sometimes we'd go to sleep together, and I'd wake up in the middle of the night and see that I was alone. I finally caught him one night walking out of the room, he said he was just going to get a glass of water. Then, just about a week ago, he hadn't come back inside for an entire day, so I went out there around sunset and saw him standing in front of the ocean. He was surrounded – literally – by beach animals and I was afraid to approach him, so I just shouted at him. I shouted that he needed to come back, that I missed him and loved him, and this was the last time I'd tell him to come back. I told him it was me or this power trip he was on. He didn't even turn around to look at me. He just began to walk away. I screamed at him, again and again and again and again. He never turned back. I screamed until I couldn't see him anymore, and then... and then..." Harley was lost in tears.

That was what happened? Mik became King of the Seashore and enjoyed his power more than he enjoyed his lover? The idea was laughable, and indeed it was tempting to laugh, but Harley was heartbroken and Mik had left him – that remained fact. Gio could only embrace his friend and wipe away his tears.

"Harley. I know that what Mik did to you was terrible, but I'm here for you. What can I do?"

"Just hold me," Harley responded quietly. And indeed, that was what Gio did. They sat there for a couple of minutes, the softness of the bed renewing his exhaustion. Then, he got an idea – a bold one, but one that would probably help Harley a lot. He got up briefly and lifted up Harley, neck in one arm and the back of his knees in the other, and gently laid him down upon the twin bed. Harley had a somewhat confused look on his face, but Gio quickly kicked off his shoes and lay down behind Harley, embracing him in a spooning fashion. Immediately, Harley calmed down, though his tears continued to flow.

"We could just fall asleep like this," Gio said, hoping that Harley would get the idea that it was friendly even though Gio didn't intend for it to be. It worked.

"That would be nice," Harley reiterated. The two let their dreams take them, and for the first time in a long time, Harley slept well, and Gio slept happily.

* * *

You know the drill. BmB isn't mine (Sandra K. Fuhr) and reviews are appreciated.


	7. Giovanni DiAngelo

And the final chapter of the series concludes.

* * *

Sunlight shone dimly through the one window at the far end of the room. Since the sun was on another side of the house it wasn't overly bright, but it was enough to wake up the sleeping pair. Or at least one of them.

Gio stirred in his sleep, opening one eye lazily. All he saw was a wall. He was surprised; since when had his apartment had brightly-colored walls? He looked 'up,' and saw a bookshelf with coloring books in it. Where had this come from? He didn't remember even having a bookshelf. Then, it all rushed back to him – he wasn't in his apartment anymore: he was at Harley's new house. These were things that Harley had prepared for Gio for whenever he visited. Gio glanced down, and saw the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen: his angel, Harley, asleep in his arms. For a moment, he forgot to breathe, and he just clutched Harley a bit tighter, wanting to cry from the happiness this moment brought him. His angel was here - Harley began to stir, and Gio had to release his grip, suddenly remembering to inhale.

"Wake up sleepyhead," Gio told Harley, who was beginning to stretch and yawn. Harley gripped Gio's arm briefly, then looked down at it and cocked his head.

"Mik?" he asked innocently. Then, he turned around and saw Gio. The disappointment in his eyes couldn't have been more hurtful, and then to make things worse, Harley began to cry once again.

_Don't be surprised, Gio, he still misses Mik a lot. _Gio hugged his friend tight.

"I'm sorry, Harley. I know this is difficult for you, but I'm here to help." To Gio's relief, Harley's sobs began to soften. He wiped his eyes on his robe once more, beginning to talk with evident tears and strain in his voice.

"Sorry buddy, it's just that... I don't know what I'm gonna do without him. He's always been there for me and now that he's gone, I feel like part of me has gone with him." He resumed his wailing once again, and Gio could only bite his lip. What do you say to something like that?

"You want to be alone for a little bit?" Gio asked his friend. Harley nodded viciously, not in anger but in agreement.

"Alright, how about I go make some breakfast?" No response. Gio would make breakfast for himself anyway. He got up and left Harley to cry in the small bed, turning around once he reached the door to make sure his friend wasn't too shaken up. He was, but there was nothing Gio could do.

He walked out the door and through the narrow hallway, assuming the kitchen was right next to the family/living room. Thankfully, it was. It was beautiful and grandeur, but in the early morning light the whole thing seemed to be covered in a blanket of drab grey. What an awful side-effect for living next to the western ocean.

Crossing to the island stove, Gio glanced around for pots and pans, eventually finding them in a cabinet under the stove. The fridge was obvious and he sifted through to find eggs and cheese to make an omelet, though he was surprised at how little food there was left in the refrigerator. A good twenty minutes later, he'd finally managed to make one that looked edible, though he felt sad for having ruined a few eggs from someone else's food supply. He started on a second one for Harley, when, to his surprise, the young man walked in, this time dressed in a maroon robe. Gio waved to him and gave a little smile.

"Hey man, you feeling better?" Gio asked.

"Yeah, much better than before. Thanks for giving me that alone time, I needed it after such a rush of emotions last night. You making omelets?" Harley asked, his renewed relief visible.

"Well, trying to. I failed about twice before you came in. Here, grab the one that's already done, I'll make another for myself. I'm sure you're famished," Gio lied. Oddly enough, Harley didn't look like he'd lost any weight from depression. If anything he'd gained a couple of pounds – literally, a couple. The difference was barely visible.

"Alright, I trust you," Harley said, giving a small smile. Things were already getting better.

Once they were done eating their breakfast, Harley decided to show Gio his music room. Gio was expecting some large room filled with instruments and sound-proofed walls, as well as an industrial-sized door to prevent sound escaping from there, too. Instead, he found a small room with a slightly-thicker wooden door at the front, and only a few guitars inside. He then remembered that Harley only played the guitar; the other band members had really contributed to the noise.

There were a few microphones around, as well as some music stands and a desk in a corner for writing music. Considering how beautiful and extravagant the whole house was, Gio was disappointed at the music room for its...normality.

"I was expecting something better," Gio said before he could grasp his words and shove them back in his mouth. Harley shrugged.

"It would have been if it wasn't just me playing. Cyanide had the drums, that's most of the noise, and my electric guitar isn't actually that loud. Besides, I do acoustic, too." Harley admitted. Gio glanced around.

"Wanna jam a little bit?" he asked playfully. Harley turned to him and gave the biggest smile Gio had seen since his arrival.

"I'd like that."

Two hours later, the two had managed to break themselves back into a good rhythm, both of Harley's guitars synchronizing very well but Gio felt something was lacking since he didn't have his own guitar with him. After they finished the last jam session, Gio patted Harley on the back.

"Great job, dude! How often do you play anyway?" he asked.

"Not very much, man. I usually just sing nowadays. Kinda miss the guitar sometimes," Harley confessed. Gio frowned.

"Then you could ask to go acoustic, couldn't you?"

"Yeah but they think that I'd need more of a band to play the guitar again. Nowadays they just play a random band with me. I sing and they work around it."

How sad. Gio felt that Harley probably would have been better off if they had all sticked together, but Sheequa leaving the town really put a damper on the whole thing. And since Cyanide was set on staying in the same town and Harley got such a great music deal for leaving to LA, they were destined to break apart. Gio sighed, remembering how much fun he had hanging out with all of them.

"Good times, man," Gio said, looking at Harley who was obviously thinking of the same thing. Harley frowned and his eyes became misty.

"I'm sorry abandoned you and Cyanide, Skids. I really am. I didn't even think about your feelings and everything..." he said, trailing off.

"Hey, hey, it's alright," Gio said, embracing his friend as he took off his guitar, "You were looking out for yourself. We all have to do that sooner or later. And hell, I went off to New York, way the hell away from you and Cyanide, too. I kinda abandoned you, and I'm sorry for that." He pulled back from Harley and wiped away Harley's tears from his left eye with a smile.

"Heh, look at me, I'm so emotional even over things besides Mik..." Harley resumed. His breaths got faster and faster, and Gio saw the panic appearing in his eyes. His mind raced for some sort of distraction.

"Hey, how about you give me a tour of the whole place?" Gio quickly asked. Harley caught his drift, and his breathing began to slow.

"Yeah, yeah I can do that," he told him, putting down his guitar and grabbing his chest to relieve his emotions.

The two walked out of the music room and around the entire house, starting in the basement. It was remarkably large and extravagant; along the way upstairs Gio asked Harley how much the place had cost. Harley said that he didn't know, since Mikhael had already paid for it in full, and amazingly enough he didn't start to lose it upon saying his ex-boyfriend's name. The main level Gio had already seen most of, but he was surprised at how many rooms there were throughout the whole area. He fell in love with Mik's art room (the shiny colors for paint and large canvases), though he was only able to pass by it and glance in, since it hurt Harley too much to walk inside. He saw a few paintings, catching a glimpse of a large mural of the beach and a small portrait of Harley.

Then, he walked up the winding staircase. It must've been a huge pain to get anything upstairs, seeing as the staircase wasn't that wide, but Gio made no vocalization of this.

Once they arrived to the upper level, he could only gawk once again. He saw furniture aplenty and a lofty bedroom in the distance, with a few guest rooms and lofts around. He watched Harley's face become more solemn as he slowly approached the master bedroom, where he undoubtedly spent most of his nights crying. He approached the double-doors leading to it, and rested his hand on the handle of one of them, facing it but no longer moving.

Gio watched for a couple of moments, and then reached to his friend, touching him on the shoulder.

"You don't have to show me your room if you don't want to," he assured his friend. Harley turned back to reveal part of his beautiful face, and then smirked.

"Yeah, I don't think I need to just yet," he said, turning around completely. Gio placed an arm around the blonde once more, staving off any romantic feelings in order to comfort his friend. Harley smiled and grasped Gio's hand, making him gasp quietly and bite his lip for a second. He wasn't expecting that. _Change the subject, Gio._

"How about we go and see your yard?"

"Eh, we don't really have a yard," Harley responded, laughing for a bit. Saying 'we' this early was probably better than attempting to say 'I.'

"Oh? Then what do you have?"

"A beach," Harley told him. Gio was tempted to ask to go outside but he knew that the beach was probably a bit more emotional than what he needed right now.

"The view would be nice anyway," Harley said, and began to walk downstairs. When they reached the back door, Gio hesitated. The door on their indoor patio was glass and he could already see the waves crashing into the shore and the sun shining brightly above them. The contrast between Harley's mood and the beach outside was outstanding.

"Harley, if you don't want to, I understand," Gio told him upfront, with an arm still around him.

"No... I... I have to get over it some time. Mik left about a week ago, and I've been calling in 'sick' to work ever since. I took too long to give you a call, too. I've just been crying and crying and not even thinking about what to do..." Harley told him, his eyes not moistening a bit.

"... But it's time for me to start coming to terms with what happened. I haven't even gone out and looked for him or anything. I just wait until late at night thinking he'll come back, thinking he'll be here again... but part of me tells me he won't. He'll never come back, and we'll never be together again."

Harley paused, sitting on a large outdoor chair set up inside the large indoor patio. Gio sat in a small chair next to him, waiting for him to resume. Harley simply sat and contemplated, not crying yet not smiling. After what seemed like eternity, he looked up at the door and stood up.

"Let's go."

The pair walked out onto the beach, the sun briefly blinding both of them. It was a private beach so Harley walking around in a maroon robe and Gio walking in jeans and a t-shirt didn't look too awkward. Harley glanced around – it really was a beautiful and clean beach, considering it was in Los Angeles. It was also pretty private, seeing as it was private property. Then, Gio realized just how hot it was out there. Whoa – he was impressed at the sun's ability to heat him up. He quickly took off his shirt and tossed it back to the patio while Harley was still looking forward at the beach.

"How about we go looking and see if we can find any clues as to where he went?" Gio asked. Harley simply nodded.

"Let's head south," he said, walking towards the shore and then along it. Gio also took off his socks and tossed them back to the patio, rolling up his jeans a bit to prevent the seawater from getting them wet. He followed Harley and glanced around for any sign of Mikhael.

"Nothing so far..." Harley said at first, "but... hey Skids, why don't-" Harley turned around to face his old friend and saw him shirtless for the first time since he'd come back. Though Gio offered his trademark smile, Harley instantly turned a deep pink at the sight, unable to look away.

"Uh...wow, you've been...working out, I take it." Gio almost blushed at the attention, but instead was prouder than anything else. He even flexed 'accidentally' for Harley's viewing pleasure, and Harley's eyes became somehow wider than before and his shade of pink went to red.

"Yeah, I have. That's a long story, though. How about we resume later after we've looked around for Mik?" Gio told him, unhappy to break the spell he had over Harley but only looking out for the well-being of his friend. Harley shook his head, still staring but with less wide eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, let's...do that," he said, still catching glimpses when he thought Gio wasn't looking. Gio noticed every glance, smiling quietly to himself as he pretended to watch the waves crashing in every couple of seconds.

The pair walked down quite a ways along the noisy beach – almost an entire mile. Gio was astounded to see nobody else along the beach, but then remembered that these sections of the beach were probably private property as well. The waves lapped at their feet, but never went past their ankles. Gio began to ponder what was going through Harley's head as they walked down towards the spot where his former lover had disappeared – was he expecting to find Mik or something? Find him just waiting there, ready to come back to Harley? Ready to resume their relationship and tear Giovanni in twain yet again?

Something caught Harley's eyes, and he rushed towards it. It was a few feet in-shore and atop a large boulder. Gio ran to catch up with him, but Harley was faster. Gio saw he ha noticed something shiny on the rock. He scrambled up the Boulder and grabbed at it. Gio finally reached him and asked him what it was.

Harley could only turn with sorrow in his eyes and open his clenched fist.

It was Mik's commitment ring.

"No..." was all Gio could say. The commitment between Mik and Harley had meant more than anything to Mikhael, but if he'd purposefully removed his ring like that, it could only mean one thing.

Mikhael Rasputin wasn't coming back.

Harley broke down once again, sobbing so loudly that Gio thought he was trying to drown out the sound of the ocean. Gio calmly picked him up in the same manner that he had the night before, and began the trek home. The Jewish boy didn't protest, and only continued to sob and clutch the ring tightly.

By the time they'd gotten back to the beach house, Gio was beginning to have a mild shortness of breath from carrying Harley for over a mile. He managed to get Harley inside while still wearing only his jeans, bringing him to the family room couch. He whispered that he'd return shortly, he just needed to get his clothes. Gio did so, rushing as fast as he could with sandy wet feet through the wooden floors.

_I'm gonna have to clean this up later...but Harley comes first._

He went out and grabbed his shirt, glancing one last time at the beach to make sure Mik didn't emerge out of the ocean in the last few moments. He hadn't. He also picked up his socks, amazed at how hot the sand had become. He then put them inside the door and laid them out flat so they wouldn't get ruined (he didn't have many changes of clothes left) and then jogged back to Harley. His friend had become even more of a wreck than he was before, rocking back and forth on the couch, sobbing louder and louder.

Gio began to approach him but stopped just a couple of feet short. He knew that what he tried wouldn't help, so instead he reached out a hand and touched Harley on the head, letting his hands brush through his hair. Harley noticed, and could only look at him with a sopping face, still clutching the ring in his hand so tightly that Gio wondered if he could let go. His look screamed _why: _why had Mik left him, why was he so alone now, why did it all happen when he had come to Los Angeles? He then turned back to his sobs, and Gio painfully turned around to face away from Harley as he walked back to his guest room down the long hall. He heard Harley crying even after the door was closed.

_I guess he was really hoping that Mik would come back...that he would somehow show up and everything would be alright. But the ring itself is living proof that Mik is really gone, and he's not coming back. He might even be dead..._

All the technicalities of the situation began to run through Giovanni's head – had Harley reported him as a missing person? Had Mik's art studio (or whatever) been notified? Had his family (or friends) been notified? Was Gio the first one to find out about Mik's disappearance? It didn't matter that much right now, he would ask Harley later anyway, when those sobs finally died down. So ironic that during the middle of the bright and happy day, Harley found a grim, solemn end to his once-happy and blissful relationship. Gio grimaced, sitting down on his bed. His belongings from New York were scheduled to arrive in a few days, so for now he could only rely upon Harley's house – for food, for a computer, for pretty much everything. He guessed he was welcome to stay as a guest for as long as he liked, but he felt that it would be rude to extend his stay and continue to mooch off his best friend.

Still, the events of the day had taken a bit of a toll on him, and he hadn't had the chance to work out in a couple of days, making him feel woozy from the sudden work-out without his supplements. He slid out of his pants and let them fall onto the floor, leaving him only in his boxers. He slowly closed his eyes as he lay his head upon the soft blue pillow. For now, he just needed a nap.

When he awoke about 45 minutes later, feeling much more energized, he stretched out his arms and opened his eyes. Blurs at first, then the ceiling of the room came into vision. Harley had put up glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling to match the deep blue of the night sky painted above him. Gio smiled, happy that his best friend had remembered so much of his old room. He glanced to his left, and saw Harley sitting in a chair in front of an empty desk, looking down at the floor.

"Harley?" he asked curiously.

"Hey dude, I'm..." he began cautiously, "... I'm sorry I broke down so bad in front of you. I'm not usually that bad, y'know-"

"Of course I know. I've known you for how long?" he asked his best friend. Harley glanced up, smiling a bit.

"You're right. You have known me for a long time. Ever since I maced those two little bastards in middle school..."

"Yeah. I was such a nerd back then," Gio confessed, laughing a tiny laugh. Harley laughed in response. A genuine, hearty laugh.

"You were! I'm amazed at how much you've changed though. You're such a different person now."

"I wouldn't be if I'd never met you."

Silence fell over the two of them and Harley could only look on at his friend, who was gazing intently back at him. Harley's skin tinged a bit pink, and he smiled as he looked back down at the floor.

"Thank you. I guess I'm good for something, y'know?" he told Gio. Gio smiled back.

"You're good for plenty! You got a great offer to come out here as a singer, you're a wonderful best friend and a great person to boot! Albeit, not very into your religion or taking responsibility, but you give and you take!" Harley cocked one eyebrow at him.

"How'd you know those two things?" he asked, bewildered.

"'Cause I know you. Duh." Gio smiled back at him. The two stared in silence for a bit, and then both laughed together in a synchronized harmony.

"So what've you been up to in New York?" Harley asked Gio. Giovanni's stomach knotted, and his lips curled inward uncontrollably. However, he regained his composure after a second or two.

"Well...not much, but a lot has happened," Gio said. Harley tilted an eyebrow once again.

"I know, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but you'll see soon. So, first day we moved in-"

"We? Who did you move in with?"

_Oh God, I never told him, did I? Mik never found out either!_

"Um...well, see... I moved in with... Tybalt." He hated mentioning the name again, and as he could clearly see, Harley hated hearing it.

"You moved in with _that_ bastard?" His voice had a light tinge of accusation, but it was mostly surprise and shock.

"Well Harley, the problem is that he was the only one who would move in with me. It was a two-bedroom place and I figured that it would be better to move in with someone instead of trying to pay rent all on my own." He gladly skipped the part where he had sex with Tybalt before he asked him to go to New York with him. Harley merely nodded in agreement, though not approval, and motioned his head for Gio to continue.

"The first day we got there, we went up to our apartment to move in a few things that we had. Funny enough, the first person we met was this awesome girl named Griselda. She likes metal and she's random and she loves the eighties and we instantly became best friends!" Harley smiled and sighed lightly.

"Oh Skids, you make friends everywhere you go!" he said happily. Now it was time to tell the truth.

"Harley... don't call me Skids." He was forced to hold back a cringe upon saying it. The words sounded harsh and cut into both of them, but it was something Gio needed to get across. Harley just looked at him with a slightly-tilted head and then narrowed his eyes.

"... Why not?" Harley asked a bit accusingly. Gio looked him directly in the eye, and Harley's head moved back a bit in surprise.

"After you left us, I went through a few changes. As part of dealing with you leaving and having to get used to the business world, I decided to stop calling myself Skids and start calling myself by my real name – Gio, or Giovanni." There. Perfect: concise, to-the-point, honest and yet not specific enough to say that it was romantic reasons that caused Gio to change his preferred name. Harley still seemed a bit bewildered and unhappy, but after a few seconds, he sighed and resigned his feelings.

"Well Sk-Gio...if that's what you want," he said.

"It is. I had a lot of growing up to do, Harley. I felt like if I stuck to that name, people around me wouldn't take me seriously – whether they were my friends or co-workers or what-not." Gio told him. It hurt to say these things to the man who'd given him his nickname he so adored once upon a time, but he was doing his best to adjust to all the things that had happened to him.

"Well...continue," Harley told him, still straining to adjust to the new name. He'd never called Gio anything but 'Skids' before, so the internal battle was understandable.

"We were practically inseparable, but then after about two months...she started dating Tybalt." Gio saw Harley cringe and draw his hands back from their relaxed position.

"Tell me about it. I thought my life was over. I gave you a call to see what you were doing but you didn't answer – you didn't get back to me for like, a month."

"You called?"

"Yeah. I didn't leave much of a message, unfortunately, but yeah, I definitely called."

"Hm... maybe it slipped Mik's mind or something. Ah well." It didn't matter that much anymore, so Gio just let it slide.

"So shortly before you gave me a call, I was hanging out with Griselda for the first time – I had to be quiet though, because Tybalt was spying on us and I knew it. She even saw it herself! But she didn't want to break up with him still. I grew frustrated and left after Tybalt told me he'd asked her to move in. Knowing that she was still happy she was finally in a relationship after her abusive ex, she wouldn't want to leave him. So I left."

"Even though you were such awesome friends with her?" Harley protested. Gio nodded solemnly.

"I can't fight her battles for her, Harls. She's got to learn how to fight for herself, so I told her just that. She agreed and said she'd gotten an idea about that, so I think she's already on her way to taking care of it. Unfortunately, I told her this over the phone yesterday when I'd just arrived in LA, so it might be a little while until she figures out everything." Silence fell over the two for a few seconds, then Harley piped up.

"Wow. You've been a busy dude, Gio!" Harley told him. For some reason, 'Gio' didn't quite sound right coming from Harley, but the young man said nothing in protest to it.

"But...you never told me about...that," Harley said, gesturing to Gio's newfound sculpted physique. Gio glanced down at his exposed six-pack and biceps, laughing a bit.

"Oh this! Hee. Well...to focus my energies into something constructive, I decided to start working out so I wouldn't... y'know, get horny one night and do something stupid. It really helped me focus on more important things, on trying to get my life back together. I really missed you two and I was doing my best to cope with it." Gio trailed off for a moment, then glanced up and noticed Harley was staring at his naked torso yet again. He laughed.

"I take it you like this new build of mine?" Gio asked. Harley shook his head, looking confused, and then regained his composure.

"Yeah, I... I really do. Heh, reminds me of when I was all obsessed with you back in high school. What a hopeless romantic I was, huh?" The two began to laugh, Gio internally praying that Harley would still have similar feelings after all these years. Harley stood up from his chair.

"Well I dunno about you but I'm starving. I think we should go and make some lunch – or go out to eat if you'd like. Either way, it's my treat!" Giovanni smiled back.

"I think I'd like to go out and see what LA is like."

They went to a Thai restaurant and had spring rolls. Gio got to see the beef of LA, and definitely liked it. Albeit it wasn't as tall or imposing as New York City but it was close! It was shiny, it was filled with all sorts of different people, it was refreshing and it was going to be his new home. No running away this time, no defaulting on a lease (mostly since he planned on living with Harley), no Tybalt to deal with (thank GOD). It was time to start his new life – this go-around, he would be happier.

By three months later, he had already found a decent-paying job (with his business degree yet again), and Harley was almost completely recovered. Part of Gio told him that he would never fully recover from such an event, but he could still be hopeful. All of Gio's belongings were integrated into the house and Gio could only smile at the coordination of their very different items. His guitar had joined Harley's in the music room, and the two had occasional jam sessions where they matched up quite well.

It was around this time that he called Cyanide more frequently, because he was more comfortable with where he was at. Obviously Cya was pissed off at him for the limited contact, but he offered good advice while Harley was at work and Gio was in his little guest room.

"You still love him, don't you?" he heard his best friend say over the phone. Gio was tempted to nod, but then remembered that Cya couldn't see him.

"Of course I do. I love him with all my heart, man," he responded.

"Well at least you're starting to sound like your old self. Almost tempted to call you Skids again, heh. How did Harls take it when you told him you wanted him to call you Gio?"

"Eh. He wasn't too happy about it, but he didn't put up too much of a fuss. It's been that way ever since day two. The good news is that he's almost over Mik's disappearance. You really should've come out here to be here for him."

"No man! I can't fight his battles for him," Cya began, making Gio cringe in familiarity, "and besides Ronnie needs me right now. She's got some confidence issues sometimes and I want to be there for her, make her feel better about herself, y'know?"

The last sentence meant very little to Gio at the moment – was he really so absorbed in Harley that he had just been able to abandon poor Griselda to that monster Tybalt? He suddenly felt as though he'd valued Harley, the one who abandoned him, over Griselda, the one who lifted him up and always listened to him...well, up until the end, anyway. He couldn't justify it right now, but Griselda wasn't a wreck when he left – Harley was. So, the rational thing to do was to come out to be there for his best friend, who had no one else, and had (prior to this event) always been strong and able to deal with his emotions and life events.

_Whatever, think about it later._

"Alright, I understand."

"Hey, did you wanna talk to her? She's right here," Cyanide told him. Gio thought for a moment...it might help take his mind off that internal argument.

"Sure, why not?" Ronnie answered within two seconds, and they chatted about various Anime and a little Buffy. Gio had forgotten how much he missed her, and for a few minutes felt the flame of jealousy since he'd tried to get with her before Cyanide had started dating her. Then he remembered that he was hopelessly in love with Harley anyway, and she was very happy with his best pal. He told her she needed to visit, and she laughed and said _he_ needed to visit instead. The two debated, and Gio kept insisting that she visit until she finally relented with a 'maybe.'

She handed the phone over to Cyanide, comically frustrated, and Cyanide began to laugh.

"I'll call you back, man. Let Harley know ASAP, yeah? It's about time anyway," he told him and before Gio could respond, Cyanide hung up.

"... You're right," Gio said to nobody. It was time to come clean.

When Harley arrived home from work that day, Gio rejoiced internally, like always. He grabbed a snack he'd made while Harley was gone and brought it to him.

"Here ya go dude!" he told him. Harley was quite surprised and pleased.

"Thanks man! What's with the nice treatment? You want something from me?" Harley joked. Gio laughed.

_I want all of you_, he thought to himself, but he kept his thoughts private.

"Nah, I just wanted to make you happy. How about we take a walk on the beach once you're done?" he asked his buddy. Harley nodded.

"Yeah just let me take a quick shower, I feel kinda grody," he confessed. Gio laughed and bopped him on the nose quickly.

"Well hurry up, I wanna get going."

"Alright alright, I'll get ready!" he told his best friend, laughing and avoiding another poke to the stomach. He rushed up the stairs with a smile on his face. Giovanni turned away and sighed, wondering if he would be strong enough to really handle this. He had known Harley forever, loved him for what seemed like an eternity and yet this moment felt like it could wait. How was he going to break it to him? He didn't even know what to say to start out the whole thing. Maybe he would just wing it?

While he pondered these things, he looked out the large window displaying the beach front. The repetition of the waves crashing in put him in a trance, and his mind wandered back to when he first met Harley, when he was first saved by his saved by his angel. He wondered what his life would have been like if he hadn't met him. Would he have developed into such an attractive person from taking Tae Kwon Do (partially to impress Harley, partially to stop his bullying from happening)? Would he have gone to New York to try and escape his past? To attempt to get over Harley, always in vain? It always came back to Harley, and at the end of the day, the blonde man was all that he was thinking about.

He snapped back to reality and quickly dug his phone out of his pocket. He glanced at his normal background – a picture of the beach he'd taken recently – and created a new message. It was directed to Griselda.

"I'm about to tell him. Wish me luck."

He heard the hot water shut off from upstairs, and he flipped his phone shut.

It was time.

Harley walked down the stairs, drying off his hair one last time before tossing the towel on the rail. Gio looked up at him and smiled, standing up to give him his full attention.

"You ready?" he asked his friend, though he doubted the same for himself. Harley smiled back, and Gio noticed something different.

"Sure am!" he told him, his chin looking awfully bare. Gio's expression made him stop as soon as Harley reached the bottom of the stairs. Giovanni walked up to his friend and slowly rubbed one finger from the top of his neck to his bottom lip.

"You...you shaved your goatee." He stated, dumbfounded by Harley's lack of it.

"Yeah... I figured it's time for some change around here," Harley admitted, his eyes averting to one side.

_Such true words, my angel._

"Yeah... hell maybe I'll start wearing shorts more often!" Gio didn't wear jeans all the time because of appearance issues or anything, he just always felt that pants were more comfortable.

"Hell yeah you should! They're way comfy, dude!" Harley told him. He was clad in awfully short jean shorts with a white tank top and a couple of dog tags he'd started wearing recently. To be honest, Gio was having trouble not looking at him.

"Ha, maybe," Gio said, playfully bopping him in the chest. Harley bopped him right back in the arm.

"Let's go!" Harley said enthusiastically. His bright smile brought a smile to Gio's own lips, and Gio got up, taking Harley's arm, as the two walked to the patio and out to the shore just an hour or so before sunset.

The two danced and rushed around the lapping waves in the waning light. Gio was reminded of how incredibly similar this was to his dream. However, he was dressed differently, as was Harley, and his build had changed. He saw some semblance of similarity anyway.

Harley rushed over to a short distance away from the shore, and lay his back flat on the sand. Gio watched on from the shoreline, and watched Harley spread his arms and legs back and forth. He was making a sand angel. Gio laughed, and then ran over next to him to make a sand angel as well. Gio was surprised at how happy such a small act made the both of them. Harley then jumped up and ran through the waves, the water rising all the way up to his short shorts. The young man cringed at the temperature of the water. Gio looked up and got an evil look on his face. Harley didn't recognize it at first, until he saw Gio rapidly approaching, so he began to run to the side, but Gio caught up with him. As Harley laughed, his friend fake-roared as he picked him up (with ease) and tossed him completely into the tide. Harley went under and emerged a second later, flipping his short hair around in an attempt to whip Gio in the face. Gio laughed at his attempt, play-wrestling with him for a few moments before Harley was exhausted (he didn't work out much).

The two laid themselves upon the beach, their feet too far in to be touched by waves. While Harley's eyes were closed, Giovanni looked over at his friend and grinned.

"It's been a long time since the two of us had this much fun together," he told the Jewish boy, his mind drifting to romantic thoughts. Harley grinned with a full set of teeth, his eyes still closed.

"Yeah man, I've been so depressed lately but you really helped me come out of that depression with your happy bright and cheery personality!" he admitted. Gio smiled in response.

"Well, always glad to help out my best buddy," he told Harley, one of his hands reached over to lay upon the young man's chest. He was so close...yet so far. Harley then opened his eyes, cocked an eyebrow at the action and giggled.

"Silly boy Gio," he said, as he brushed the hand off and began to walk away from the beach, back towards the house. Gio frowned, feeling rejected and hurt, but he began to walk after Harley anyway. The young man walked slowly back towards the beach house, and Gio's shadow covered Harley's back and then some.

"Hey dude..do you remember that day when we were hanging out in high school?" Gio began.

"Narrow it down man!" Harley requested. Gio sighed quietly.

"It was the day when you spilled juice on your shirt, so you borrowed mine instead."

Harley stopped walking. Gio paused, hoping it would incite some memories and maybe, just maybe, a hope of some sort of reciprocation for his feelings. His breath stopped and he could only stare wide-eyed at Harley's back. He'd been waiting for this moment for too long. Then, after an agonizing three seconds, Harley spoke up.

"Oh yeah! That was kinda awkward, what with you walking in and all. I was kinda nervous about my appearance so that's why I got embarrassed, heh," he confessed.

Nothing. No hope. No reciprocation. No returned feelings.

Gio couldn't take it anymore. He clutched his chest and all the feelings of all the years that had passed rushed back to him. Meeting Harley for the first time, attaching himself as a friend, attaching himself as a guardian, finally seeing how madly in love he was with his best friend, then having to let him be taken by another man, having to see him move away, tearing out his heart, having to move to New York with someone he so despised, making a best friend and having her torn away from him, too...and now, he was finally here with his angel. Mik was gone, and Gio was here, but Harley didn't want him. He never had, and Gio's feelings were for naught.

Giovanni fell to his knees, sand sinking into the hole in his jeans. His palms met the hard grains as well, but the pain of the impact was nothing compared to the tempest in his heart. At the sound of the fall, Harley turned his head around... his beautiful blue eyes, ignited by the sunset's rays, looking down at his Italian friend, who was acting very unusual.

"Wh-what's wrong?" he asked nervously. This wasn't like his old friend to fall into the sand and not be laughing about it. Harley turned his full body – blonde hair, slim torso and tiny shorts - towards his childhood friend whom he'd once saved. Gio looked up, his eyes overflowing with tears. He could see his beautiful angel, glowing in the sun, standing before him... but the situations he'd endured had taken their toll. He was broken now and his words came from the soul. He shouted, not caring who heard anymore.

"God dammit, Harley, can't you see what you've done to me? Ever since I saw you that day in high school, I've been nothing but miserable! Trying to cover it up, trying to make myself love someone else... when in truth, I can't! Cyanide told me that I'm obsessed but I don't care! After all the pain when we were still living in the same city, after I left for New York and met more misery, and now I'm here before you...but I still don't have you!" He was facing the ground, letting his tears hit the powdery earth in front of him. Harley was confused, tilting his head ever-so-slightly.

"Still don't have me? What do you mean?" Harley asked as he knelt down onto two knees and brought up Gio's chin, merely inches away from his face. Gio's heart raced, and he realized that his former moment of truth had been a faux - _this_ was the moment Gio had been waiting for. It was here – right now. This was really happening, he wasn't just dreaming it anymore.

_Calmly, Skids, calmly..._ he thought to himself. Time seemed to slow its ever-constant pace, and he could see the individual strands of golden hair running across his angel's face. He slowly, very slowly, leaned in and gave Harley the tiniest, most delicate kiss he had ever given anyone.

"... I love you, Harlequinn Goldman. I always have... and I always will," he whispered an inch away from his friend's lips. A gentle breeze wafted among them, tousling their hair together and encircling them in his words. Giovanni gave Harley a hearty smile, his sense of accomplishment beaming in his heart.

Forever and a second later, Harley stood up, much to Gio's surprise.

"Harley?" he asked him. His childhood friend didn't say anything, and continued to walk back to the house.

Gio's brow furrowed, and he caught up with him, putting an arm around him for a second.

"Harley, tell me what's up," he said. Harley backed away from his arm, and Gio's face turned to an expression of sorrow he'd never felt before.

"... Harley..." he whispered. His heart was hanging on a thread, but Harley spoke his mind while he faced the other way, turning his head slightly on occasion.

"Gio, I need some time to think about this. I just lost the man I've been dating for 5 years – and granted, I may seem better about it, but that doesn't mean I'm over him 100%."

"Harley, I know. I'll help you every step of the way – I already have-"

"Yes, I know that, but Giovanni," Harley said, which was a word he'd never used to refer to his best friend, "I don't know if it's possible to start a relationship so soon after my lover left me. I've spend over a fifth of my life with him, but I think it might as well have been my entire life."

Gio was silenced. He wanted to say something more but he could tell Harley's mind was made up.

"Alright, Harley. You can take your time. Just... know one thing," he said. Harley finally turned around and faced him, small tears forming in his eyes.

"... It took me since that day in high school to tell you how I feel about you. I have been through hell and back for you, Harley, and I'd do it again if it meant being with you just one more time," Gio said. Harley's mouth opened a bit in surprise, amazement and empathy, but before he could say anything, Gio turned around and walked back inside.

One week later, Gio and Harley still hadn't spoken. Life hadn't become mundane anymore, but both of them sensed the tension in the air any time the other was in the room. Their friendship had obviously changed, but Gio was surprised Harley hadn't dropped the newspaper in his room with circled apartments or townhouses yet. At the very least, he intended to keep Gio as a friend no matter what happened. That was a good sign.

Finally, one day before Harley got home (in the early evening again), Gio went out to the beach and sat on the slight slope overlooking the shore in front of the patio. He thought about the pro's and con's of actually being with Harley, as he glanced down at his black tank top, happy overshirt and new cargo pants – was it really all it was cracked up to be? Harley had acted differently than he remembered, but this was mostly due to Mik vanishing on him. He'd found out recently that Harley had filed Mik as deceased, and the settlement would take years to go through but it didn't matter; Harley made plenty of money himself and he never wanted Mikhael for his money anyway.

Was it really the right thing for him to try and take advantage of Harley in his unhappy state? Wait a second... Harley had been laughing and joking around just a few moments earlier...so why did he suddenly claim that everything wasn't alright? Maybe it was all just a faux and Harley was secretly hurting inside the whole time. Gio had heard him crying at night before, though not too frequently and it had lessened as time passed. The last time he'd heard Harley crying was over a month ago. So why had Harley jumped to that defense? Maybe...maybe he just didn't like Gio.

And that was it. That was the answer, staring him plain in the face. Gio placed his head in his hands, wondering why he had been so stupid as to not see it before. He lifted his head to the sky and saw an amazing sight – Harley was standing above him. If he hadn't been so dumbfounded at his new discovery, he would have been more surprised, but instead, he just blinked.

"Hey," was all Harley could muster up. Gio stared back for a second, then said the same thing to him. The blonde man sat down next to his old friend.

"So... what's up?" he asked him. Gio stood up and Harley's brow furrowed.

"I get it, Harley. You don't want to date me. You never liked me to begin with, you just had a crush on me back in high school because it was all physical. I'd transformed completely from someone who was unattractive to someone who was very attractive, and that's why you liked me. Not for my personality, not for everything we have in common, not for any of that. Well guess what? You don't have to worry about me anymore. I'm just gonna pack up my things and take off, so I can finally leave you be. I'll be your friend, of course, but... I'll stop this nonsense once and for all," Gio told him. Harley sat there, befuddled and bewildered, as Gio began to walk back to the house.

Giovanni's eyes began to tear up as he walked away. It was time for him to move on, to finally and seriously forget about Harley, to let go of this stupid fixation he'd had since he was in high school. It was going to be difficult to actually let go of him, but he would do it...he had to. He clutched his heart once again, mentally telling it not to worry anymore, because this would be the last time it ever hurt.

"Gio wait!" his angel called out. Gio stopped and turned, not even bothering to hide the tears and before he could think, his mouth spoke for him in a sad, sputtering and shattered voice.

"Y-yes, my angel?" Harley stopped, and smiled as well as he could, seeing Gio's incredibly melancholic face. It was like the tears wouldn't stop, like the hands couldn't stop shaking and like the eyes would never stop pleading.

"Gio, stop crying dammit, you're gonna make me cry," Harley told him as he walked up to him. Using his small hands, he wiped Gio's face quickly, but it was too late for himself. He'd already developed little tears.

"Don't you cry too, Harley," the broken man said to his friend, pitifully attempting to wipe away Harley's threatening tears as well. Harley shook his head quickly.

"Gio. I want to be with you."

His heart stopped. He didn't remember the last time he breathed.

"You...you do?" he asked him, his hands no longer shaking, his tears no longer flowing. Even his eyes seemed less pleading.

"Yes, Giovanni DiAngelo, I do. I'm sorry it took me this long to tell you. I know you hear me crying at night sometimes...but just because you don't hear me doesn't mean I'm all better. Some nights it's worse than others. Mikhael is gone from my life forever but at the same time he's never going to leave. The journey will be difficult, and I don't know if things are going to work out for us... but I want to see where it goes," Harley told him. Gio's faced metamorphosed into a sad smile.

"It's not because you feel sorry for me, is it?" Gio asked. Harley nodded briefly.

"Absolutely not. Well... maybe a little," he said, gaining his 'joking smile' as Gio gave him a light punch on the arm.

"Not funny, man!" he said. Gio's face had gone through such a vivid transformation in the past few moments, but his tears continued to flow.

"What's wrong? I thought you would be happy!" Harley said.

"I am happy, Harley! These are tears of joy! I've never cried tears of joy before," Giovanni told him. The two embraced and Harley began to cry little tears as well. The couple enjoyed their happy moment on the private beach, just breathing in each others' scents as Harley fell down upon his old friend, much to his gratification.

_This isn't a dream... it's really happening. You're finally with him, Giovanni_, his mind told him. He smiled as he looked back up at Harley, and he gave Harley a kiss on the top of his head. Harley looked up.

"Hey," he said as he looked at his new boyfriend. Giovanni smiled.

"The best part of you being my boyfriend is that I get to do this now," Gio told him. Harley tilted his head in curiosity a bit as his new boyfriend pulled him up and their lips met.

Giovanni felt his soul soar. He felt his being enter the atmosphere, glide along the sun and whirl through the stars, dance on ocean waves and dart through the clouds. Every fiber in his body was ignited with a warm energy, and his arms were embracing the source of it. He felt the happiest sensation he had ever felt – true love. He was finally, _finally_ with his one true love – Harlequinn Goldman. His tears of joy began to resume during the kiss, but it didn't stop the two from connecting their lips for quite some time. By the time they had finished, the sun was almost gone from view on the ocean front, but there was still enough light to keep things bright and cheerful for them.

"Wow... I never knew you could kiss like that," Harley told his friend.

"Heh – I'll take that as 'please kiss me more often,' then," Gio retorted. Harley reached behind to his back pocket and pulled out a somehow concealed object, bopping Gio on the head with it. Gio examined it briefly.

"Is that a hat?" he asked, amazed at how he hadn't noticed it before.

"Why yes it is! I figured I'd get a little something from old times to cheer you up," Harley told him. Gio snatched it right up with a grin on his face, unfolding it. It was bright red and had a black brim. Yup, that was him alright. He placed it on his head in the backwards fashion he had always done, and a short bit of hair dangled out onto his forehead. He smiled at Harley and gave him a quick wink. The two kissed once again for a second, and then Gio lifted the both of them up and set Harley down onto his feet.

Harley looked up at Gio, the happiness in his eyes evident. Giovanni returned the same happiness, grinning like an idiot down at his boyfriend. Harley looked down at Gio's new muscles with stars in his eyes.

"These sure are a nice addition. I bet there might be a longer story about those than just 'focusing' on other things, huh?" Harley joked around. Gio grinned at him.

"Yeah, there's a lot of things I need to tell you...but for now, I just want to hold you," Gio said. Harley smiled back and eagerly embraced his new boyfriend. The two held each other until the light was almost gone. It was starting to disappear around their knees. Then, Harley spoke up.

"I can't wait to see where this goes, Gio," he said. Giovanni leaned down and looked at his new lover. He smiled his wonderful smile – but this time, it had something more to it. It had true love to it.

"Please," he told his new boyfriend with a kiss on the forehead, "... call me Skids."

* * *

And there you have it. My little take on Boy Meets Boy and the ending. So if you liked it, LEAVE A REVIEW! For crying out loud people, I think it's been three or four years since I've gotten one. A little bit goes a long way. Please.

Bmb is Sandra K. Fuhr's, not mine. Griselda, however, is my original character.


End file.
